Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2016 Dec;8(1):33-37.
doi: 10.4103/0976-0105.195100.

Utilization Study of Antihypertensives in a South Indian Tertiary Care Teaching Hospital and Adherence to Standard Treatment Guidelines

Supratim Datta  1
Affiliations

Utilization Study of Antihypertensives in a South Indian Tertiary Care Teaching Hospital and Adherence to Standard Treatment Guidelines

Supratim Datta. J Basic Clin Pharm. 2016 Dec.

Abstract

Aim: Hypertension represents a major health problem primarily because of its role in contributing to the initiation and progression of major cardiovascular diseases. Concerns pertaining to hypertension and its sequelae can be substantially addressed and consequent burden of disease reduced by early detection and appropriate therapy of elevated blood pressure. This cross-sectional observational study aims at analyzing the utilization pattern of antihypertensives used for the treatment of hypertension at a tertiary care hospital in perspective of standard treatment guidelines.

Materials and methods: Prescriptions were screened for antihypertensives at the medicine outpatient department of a tertiary care teaching hospital. Medical records of the patients were scrutinized after which 286 prescriptions of patients suffering from hypertension were included. The collected data were sorted and analyzed on the basis of demographic characteristics and comorbidities.

Results: The calcium channel blockers were the most frequently used antihypertensive class of drugs (72.3%). Amlodipine (55.6%) was the single most frequently prescribed antihypertensive agent. The utilization of thiazide diuretics was 9%. Adherence to the National List of Essential Medicines (NLEMs) was 65%. The combination therapy was used more frequently (51.5%) than monotherapy (48.8%). The use of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors/angiotensin 2 receptor blockers (ACE-I/ARB) was 41.4% in diabetes.

Conclusions: The treatment pattern, in general, conformed to standard treatment guidelines. Few areas, however, need to be addressed such as the underutilization of thiazide diuretics, need for more awareness of drugs from the NLEMs and enhanced use of ACE-I/ARB in diabetic hypertensives.

Keywords: Antihypertensive drug utilization; antihypertensives; pharmacoepidemiology; prescription pattern study.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

There are no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Antihypertensive groups used on basis of total number of drugs prescribed (n = 511). CCBs: Calcium channel blockers, BBs: Beta blockers, ACE-I/AT2RB: Angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors/angiotensin 2 receptor blockers
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Kearney PM, Whelton M, Reynolds K, Muntner P, Whelton PK, He J. Global burden of hypertension: Analysis of worldwide data. Lancet. 2005;365:217–23. - PubMed
    1. Anchala R, Kannuri NK, Pant H, Khan H, Franco OH, Di Angelantonio E, et al. Hypertension in India: A systematic review and meta-analysis of prevalence, awareness, and control of hypertension. J Hypertens. 2014;32:1170–7. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Gupta R, Gupta VP. Hypertension epidemiology in India: Lessons from Jaipur Heart Watch. Curr Sci. 2009;97:349–55.
    1. Lim SS, Vos T, Flaxman AD, Danaei G, Shibuya K, Adair-Rohani H, et al. A comparative risk assessment of burden of disease and injury attributable to 67 risk factors and risk factor clusters in 21 regions, 1990-2010: A systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2010. Lancet. 2012;380:2224–60. - PMC - PubMed
    1. National High Blood Pressure Education Programme. The sixth report of the Joint National Committee on Prevention, detection, evaluation, and treatment of high blood pressure. Arch Intern Med. 1997;157:2413–46. - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources