65% had uncontrolled/poorly-controlled high blood pressure – COBRA study

Here are the highlights of the baseline information of the study population in Puttalam published in the American Journal of Hypertension recently:

■ More than 80% of the study population was already on treatment for hypertension.

■ The study population was older (average age 62 years), more educated (more than 95% had received formal education), were richer as assessed by the International Wealth Index criteria, smoked less (about 5% smoked regularly), but were more overweight, less physically active and suffered more from diabetes and chronic kidney disease.

■ The patients in the study population had more access to recommended classes of anti-hypertensives (e.g. long acting nifedipine and losartan) and also statins.

■ Despite being more educated, wealthier with more access to medicines, more than 65% of high blood pressure patients had uncontrolled/poorly controlled blood pressure.

■ The possible reasons for this – the majority of patients were on monotherapy for high blood pressure and the majority of patients were poorly compliant.