Awareness, Treatment and Control Rates of Hypertensive Patients in Ankara

Aim: It was aimed to evaluate the awareness levels of patients about hypertension, treatment and control rates. Methods: The descriptive study included 203 patients between ages of 35–80 with a previous diagnosis of hypertension to the primary care outpatient clinic of Ankara Numune Training and Research Hospital in September 2011-January 2012. A 42-item questionnaire was used and 19 questions were used to determine the level of awareness among them. Nine measurements were in the office by the researcher and 12 measurements at home by the patient. Results: 25.6% of the patients were males and 74.4% were females. The median age was 59 years (IQR=13). The section for scoring the awareness levels revealed following: 27.1% of patients were non-aware, 58.6% had a low level of awareness and 14.3% had a high level of awareness. 72.9% of the patients were aware, 93.1% were taking antihypertensive treatment, while 42.4% measured blood pressures both at home and at office are under control. Awareness level is related to diet, exercise, education, salt usage, blood pressure measurement frequency, doctor referral frequency, education and knowledge level about hypertension, blood pressure monitoring branch, antihypertensive treatment status, hypertension duration, number of antihypertensive drugs and regular usage rates; but hypertension control was only associated with salt use, antihypertensive treatment and number of antihypertensive drugs. Conclusion: Hypertension is a common problem in our country and as we have seen in our studies, awareness rates are insufficient. Although the treatment rates are high, the control rates are not sufficient. This suggests that patients' compliance with treatment is not at the desired level. The most important thing to do in this regard is to raise awareness by increasing public awareness about hypertension. In this respect, primary care physicians have a great responsibility.