Hypertension can be dangerous if uncontrolled. Hypertensive people have maintenance medicine in order to control hypertension. A study has found that fixed-dosed pills are better for hypertensive patients.
Many hypertensive patients have different medicine to control hypertension. With many medicine to take, patients soon either lose track of the medicine they're taking or else lose desire to further take some of the medicine. Researchers have found that patients on fixed-dosed pills would stick to their prescribed medicine than those that take more than one type of medicine.
Julie Lauffenburger and her colleagues from the Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School have studied data taken from 2009 to 2013. The data had 484,493 participants. Of those, around 78,958 are taking fixed-dosed medicine. This type of medicine has all the medications needed for hypertension in one pill or capsule.
383,269 of those are into single therapy, or have one type of medicine per pill. 22,266 are on multi-pill combinations, or those that take more than one hypertensive medicine. Of those patients, it has been found that those on fixed-dosed medication have taken their medication regularly.
Fixed-dosed medication works better since patients no longer have to keep track of which medicine to take. It could also be more cost effective, as having one medicine to take would be much easier to buy than buying different medicine. These factors could have a role in keeping people on a fixed-dosed medication.
Around nine percent more patients have been found to likely stay on their medication than those who aren't on a fixed-dosed medication, according to the Springer site. They are also 13 percent more likely to regularly take their medication. This shows that fixed-dosed medication for hypertensive patients is preferable as opposed to having patients taking more medicine that could be hard to track.
Conversely, it has been found that patients who are into single therapy or multi-combination medication would be sicker in the long run, as Science Daily reports. They would also be less likely to buy or take their medicine as well. This could have serious consequences as hypertension could become uncontrolled then.
Taking medicine for hypertension could reduce the risk of a stroke. It has been found that fixed-dosed pills are better for hypertensive patients. A study has also found that hypertension in elderly people could reduce Alzheimer's risk.
