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Table 5 Characteristics of antihypertensive pharmacotherapy in urban, rural and island environment of South Croatia

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

Pharmacotherapy

Urban area (n = 56)a

Rural area (n = 75)a

Island area (n = 66)a

P b

First-line treatment (n, (%))

 1. Diuretics

3 (5.4)

8 (10.7)

1 (1.5)

0.037

 2. ACE inhibitors (ACEI)

14 (25.0)

21 (28.0)

15 (22.7)

 3. Calcium channel blockers (CCB)

16 (28.6)

5 (6.7)

9 (13.6)

 4. Angiotensin II receptor blockers (ARB)

0 (0.0)

0 (0.0)

1 (1.5)

 5. β-adrenergic receptor blockers (BB)

5 (8.9)

8 (10.7)

14 (21.2)

 7. Fixed-dose combination:c

8 (14.3)

12 (16.0)

7 (10.6)

 ACEI + diuretic

5 (8.9)

9 (12.0)

5 (7.6)

 BB + diuretic

2 (3.6)

0 (0.0)

2 (3.0)

 ARB + diuretic

0 (0)

1 (1.3)

0 (0.0)

 ACEI + CCB

1 (1.8)

2 (2.7)

0 (0.0)

 8. > 1 medications (2 or 3)c

10 (17.9)

21 (28.0)

19 (28.8)

One-year treatment (median, 95% CI)

 Total daily number of pills per patientd

1.5 (1.0–2.0)

1.5 (1.0–2.0)

2 (1.0–2.6)

0.217

 Total annual number of drugs per patient

1 (1.0–2.0)

2 (1.0–2.0)

1 (1.0–2.0)

0.135e

  1. aExcluded participants without pharmacological treatment during the first treament year (n = 16)
  2. bχ2 test
  3. cFixed-dose combination of two active pharmaceutical ingredients is considered as one drug
  4. dCalculated average total daily number of pills per each patient (since the number of pills varied during a following year) was used to calculate the median of total daily number of pills for urban, rural and island enironment
  5. eKruskal-Wallis test