Physicians’ Perceptions and Adherence to Guidelines for the Management of Hypertension: A National, Multicentre, Prospective Study

Table 7

Relation of adherence to guidelines, specialty, risk category, and BMI with blood pressure control.

	Uncontrolled	Controlled	𝑃 value
Adherence to guidelines
Overall agreement
No	66 (36.9%)	113 (63.1%)	0.617
Yes	148 (34.7%)	43 (65.3%)
Medication guideline
No	51 (38.3%)	82 (61.7%)	0.652
Yes	129 (36.1%)	228 (63.9%)
Lifestyle guideline^†
No	14 (31.1%)	31 (68.9%)	0.681
Yes	19 (27.5%)	50 (72.5%)
Other variables
Specialty
Cardiologists	106 (32.0%)	225 (68.0%)
Internists	60 (53.6%)	52 (46.4%)	<0.001
GPs	48 (29.6%)	114 (70.4%)
Cardiovascular risk
High risk*	126 (53.4%)	110 (46.6%)	<0.001
Low-medium risk	88 (23.8%)	281 (76.2%)
Body mass index (BMI)^§
Normal	22 (25.6%)	64 (74.4%)
Overweight	85 (32.0%)	181 (68.0%)	0.008
Obese	105 (41.8%)	146 (58.2%)

^†Cardiologists who correctly recommended only lifestyle modification achieved better blood pressure control than those who did not (89.3% versus 61.9%, 𝑃=0.023).
∗High cardiovascular risk indicates the presence of any of the following: established cardiovascular disease, chronic kidney disease, diabetes mellitus, metabolic syndrome, or three or more risk factors [14].
§Normal was defined those with BMI < 25 Kg/m², overweight those with 25 ≤ BMI < 29.9 Kg/m², and obese those with BMI ≥ 30 Kg/m².