1. Factors associated with antihypertensive treatment intensification and deintensification in older outpatients
- Author
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Timothy P. Hofer, Carole E. Aubert, Jinkyung Ha, Eve A. Kerr, and Lillian Min
- Subjects
medicine.medical_specialty ,Longitudinal study ,Treatment intensification ,Patient characteristics ,610 Medicine & health ,030204 cardiovascular system & hematology ,Medication ,Odds ,03 medical and health sciences ,Elderly ,0302 clinical medicine ,New medications ,360 Social problems & social services ,Internal medicine ,Treatment intensity ,Internal Medicine ,medicine ,Diseases of the circulatory (Cardiovascular) system ,030212 general & internal medicine ,Patterns ,Veterans ,Intensification ,business.industry ,Intensive treatment ,Deintensification ,3. Good health ,Treatment ,Blood pressure ,RC666-701 ,Hypertension ,Cardiology and Cardiovascular Medicine ,business ,Research Paper - Abstract
Background New hypertension performance measures encourage more intensive treatment in older adults. Treatment intensification includes starting new medications and increasing the dose of old ones. Medication dose is particularly important to older adults, given their vulnerability to dose-related side effects. We previously validated a standardized measure of beneficial doses tested in hypertension trials, Hypertension Daily Dose (HDD). Aim of the study To test whether changes in treatment intensity using HDD was associated with systolic blood pressure (SBP) and patient characteristics. Methods Longitudinal study of all Veterans aged ≥65 years with a diagnosis of hypertension. We defined 3 groups of risk: 1) cardiovascular risk; 2) geriatric/frail; 3) low-risk (comparator). Using multinomial regression, we assessed the probability of deintensification, intensification, vs. stable treatment, according to SBP and group. Results Among 1,331,111 Veterans, 19.9% had deintensification, and 29.6% intensification. Deintensification decreased, while intensification increased, with SBP. Compared to low-risk patients, cardiovascular risk patients had 1.11 (95% CI 1.10-1.13) times the odds of intensifying, and geriatric/frail patients 1.45 (95%CI 1.43-1.47) times the odds of deintensifying. Discussion Patient-level HDD change was consistent with an expected association with cardiovascular risk and geriatric/frail conditions, suggesting that HDD can be used longitudinally to assess hypertension treatment modification in large health systems.
- Published
- 2021
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