Reasons for not achieving control: therapeutic inertia in monitoring hypertension in primary care.

Abstract

Background: Physicians’ failure to change/adjust treatments after learning of poor follow-up control in hypertensive patients can be defined as clinical inertia, a frequent and serious problem that affects health care activity at the international level. Method: A total of 153 hypertensive patients under 80 years of age who met the inclusion and exclusion criteria and had received ambulatory blood pressure monitoring (ABPM) for 24 hours as the follow-up method to evaluate their level of blood pressure (BP) control. One year after data collection, the included patients were studied retrospectively, and the changes introduced by their physicians were checked based on their results. Results: Sixty-five hypertensive patients (42.5%) out of the total sample (153) were classified as poorly controlled; of these, 36 were subject to therapeutic inertia (55%). Of the 29 hypertensive patients who did undergo treatment adjustment (45%), 15 (52%) underwent adjustment before the month of notification. Conclusion: Therapeutic inertia in the care of hypertensive patients continues to be a common problem in primary care. Young hypertensive patients of male sex, smokers and nondiabetic patients were the most affected groups. Test record: Registered retrospectively by the Clinical Ethics Committee of the José María Morales Meseguer University Hospital with the code EST: 62/17