Effectiveness of treatment of newly diagnosed hypertension in family medicine practices in South Croatia

BMC Primary Care

Table 4 Secondary outcome measures for assessment of the effectiveness of AH treatment in South Croatia

Secondary outcome measures	Urban area (n = 64)	Rural area (n = 78)	Island area (n = 71)	P ^a
Initial treatment (n, %):
Non-pharmacological	14 (21.9)	8 (10.3)	18 (25.4)	0.043
Pharmacological	50 (78.1)	70 (89.7)	52 (73.2)
No data	0 (0.0)	0 (0.0)	1 (1.4)
Prescribing first medication (n, %):
Physician	51 (79.7)	74 (94.9)	62 (87.3)	0.020
Medical specialist	13 (20.3)	4 (5.1)	8 (11.3)
No data	0 (0.0)	0 (0.0)	1 (1.4)
Sick leave days beacause of arterial hypertension (mean, 95% CI)
Total number of days^b	1.8 (0.0–4.2)	3.6 (0.0–10.0)	1.2 (0.0–2.6)	0.692^c
Proportion (n, %) of patients with prescribed medications from the List(s)^d
Basic	35 (64.8)	49 (70.0)	36 (60.0)	0.286
Supplementary	11 (20.4)	6 (8.6)	9 (15.0)
Basic + Supplementary	8 (14.8)	15 (21.4)	15 (25.0)
Total price for DDD per patient (median, HRK, interquartile range)^e
Total price for DDD	0.91 (0.49–1.24)	0.96 (0.45–1.55)	1.19 (0.49–2.06)	0.228^f

^aχ² test
^bCalculated only for employed patients
^cANOVA
^dExcluded participants without pharmacological treatment during the first treatment year (n = 16) and with incomplete data on medications required for analysis (n = 13)
^eThe median of all calculated sums of prices for defined daily dose (DDD) in Croatian kuna (HRK) of all medications prescribed to each patient during one-year treatment. Excluded participants without pharmacological treatment during the first treatment year (n = 16) and with incomplete data on medications required for analysis (n = 13)
^fKruskal-Wallis test

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