A substudy evaluating treatment intensification on medication adherence among hypertensive patients receiving home blood pressure telemonitoring and pharmacist management.

WHAT IS KNOWN AND OBJECTIVE: Hypertension is a leading cause of death and major contributor to heart attacks, strokes, heart and kidney failure. Antihypertensive (HTN medication) non-adherence contributes to uncontrolled hypertension. Effective initiatives to improve uncontrolled hypertension include a team-based approach with home blood pressure (BP) monitoring. Our study objective was to evaluate whether objectively measured medication adherence was influenced by home BP telemonitoring and pharmacist management.

METHODS: We analysed HTN medication adherence in 240 patients who received home BP telemonitoring and pharmacist intervention (TI). Adherence was measured based on prescription fills and the proportion of days covered (PDC). HTN medications continued pre- to post-baseline were similar for telemonitoring intervention (TI) and usual care (UC) patients (rate ratio = 1·00, P = 0·90).

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: More HTN medications were discontinued pre- to post-baseline in TI patients (rate ratio = 1·38, P = 0·04). Similarly, more HTN medications were added in TI patients (rate ratio = 2·46, P < 0·001). The proportion with a mean PDC ≥ 0·8 for HTN medications added after baseline and overall adherence did not differ between groups.

WHAT IS NEW AND CONCLUSION: Medication adherence was high in both groups; however, medication adherence was not significantly altered by the intervention. There were more medication modifications and greater medication intensification among TI patients.