Demographic characteristics of noncompliant hypertensive patients.

Patient compliance with hypertension treatment has been labeled mediocre at best. In many studies patients have been found to comply with their physicians’’ order less than 50% of the time. There have been numerous attempts in the past to identify potentially noncompliant patient, or at least to define the major reason for this problem. This study attempts to show a relationship between patient demographic characteristics and compliance with hypertension treatment. A retrospective study of 136 hypertensive patients at two federally-funded urban family practice clinics was conducted to explore possible relationships. Six variables were chosen in an attempt to predict compliant behavior: age, sex, race, marital status, source of payment, and intensity of treatment. A medical chart audit was performed to gather information concerning compliance: blood pressure, reason for visit, prescribed treatment, frequency of visit, and physician comments concerning patient compliance. From these medical chart data each patient was classified as compliant or noncompliant. Patient age was the only study factor which showed a statistically significant difference between the compliant and noncompliant groups. Discriminant analysis results indicated that age and intensity of treatment were the only variables which statistically discriminated between compliant and noncompliant patients. The discriminant model calculated was more accurate in predicting noncompliant behavior than in prediction compliant behavior. The model accurately predicted compliance less than 30% of the time, whereas it accurately predicted noncompliance over 80% of the time. The general conclusion was that demographic characteristics did not effectively predict noncompliant behavior.