Relationship between blood pressure control status and lifestyle in hypertensive outpatients

OBJECTIVE: Lifestyle modification as well as combination antihypertensive therapy is necessary to achieve strict blood pressure (BP) control as advocated by the guidelines for the treatment of hypertension. The aim of this study was to investigate the status of adherence to lifestyle modifications and BP control status in hypertensive outpatients.

METHODS AND PATIENTS: Subjects are 661 hypertensive outpatients who had been followed at National Kyushu Medical Center. We assessed BP control status based on the average clinic BP on two occasions. In addition, we investigated the adherence to the individual items of lifestyle modification by a questionnaire.

RESULTS: Average BP was 129 ± 10/71 ± 11 mmHg and overall rate of achieving goal BP was 60.1%. Achieving rate of each target BP category was 83.3% in the elderly patients (<140/90 mmHg), 56.7% in the young/middle patients (<130/85 mmHg) and 45.5% in the patients with diabetes mellitus/chronic kidney disease/myocardial infarction (<130/80 mmHg). Adherance to each item of lifestyle modification was as follows: Patients who answered to be conscious about salt restriction was 80.9%, those with increased intake of fruits/vegetables was 79.0%, reduced intake of cholesterol/saturated fatty acids was 67.9%, presence of obesity was 37.7%, daily exercise for ≥30 min was 31.9%, habitual alcohol intake was 38.0%, habitual smoking was 9.8%. Only 22.5% of the patients had no lifestyle items to be modified. On the other hand, 19.6% of patients had more than 3 items to be modified. Subjects with more than 3 lifestyle items to be modified are more frequently found in young, male, and obese groups.

CONCLUSION: We conclude that about 60% of the patients achieved goal BP by the intensive combination therapy. The lifestyle modification seems to be important especially for the young, male and obese patients.