Hypertension control status and quality of care for hypertension among patients availing treatment from private sector: A cross-sectional study in urban field practice area of JIPMER, Puducherry

Abstract

Introduction: In low-income countries like India, there is paucity of evidence regarding hypertension control status and the quality of care pertaining to hypertension care among the patients availing treatment from private sector. We wanted to determine the hypertension control status and quality of care pertaining to hypertension received by patients seeking care from private sector. Materials and Methods: This was an community based analytical cross-sectional study carried out in an selected urban area of Puducherry. This study was conducted among 265 adults with hypertension, availing treatment from private sector. Blood pressure was measured according to standard protocol. Data were collected using pre-tested semi-structured questionnaire by doing home visits. Results: The proportion of patients who were optimally controlled for hypertension were 43.9%. More than half (64%) of the participants had not checked their blood pressure in the last 1 year. There were 21.3%, 20%, 18.2%, and 9.5% of the participants who had optimally undergone fundus examination, blood sugar, serum cholesterol and serum creatinine examinations, respectively, as per recommended frequency. More than half (64%) of the study participants had not availed follow-up blood pressure monitoring in the last 1 year. The adherence to medication among the study participants was found to be 76.5%. Conclusion: Around 4 out of 10 patients had their blood pressure status controlled. More than half of the patients did not have any sort of follow-up investigations for the last 1 year. There was a scope for improvement in frequency of follow-up investigations as per recommendations.

Keywords

• Control status
• hypertension
• low-income country
• private sector
• quality of care