Observational study on patients’ compliance with Irbesartan in essential hypertension “I Comply”

Observational study to assess essential hypertension patient’s compliance on Irbesartan, rationale for prescribing Irbesartan, profile of patient for whom it is prescribed, and assess patient/physician satisfaction. Naïve/uncontrolled patients with essential hypertension; for whom physicians decide to prescribe Irbesartan-based-regimen are followed up for 4 months to assess compliance, tolerability, satisfaction, and identify reasons for prescription. Physicians were required to fill a case-report-form and a simple questionnaire to identify patients’ characteristics, give reason(s) for prescription, and persistence/non-persistence of patients/physicians. Satisfaction, safety profile, and blood pressure control were also assessed. Total of 62.1% (n = 3971) of all screened patients (n = 6399, Naïve = 31.04%, uncontrolled = 68.96%) were prescribed an Irbesartan based regimen. Efficacy, safety, and cost; in that ranking order, were the main reasons for prescribing specific antihypertensive agent. By the end of the study, satisfaction for Irbesartan 150 mg, 300 mg, and 300 mg/12.5 mg was 95.6%, 96.8%, and 96.5%, respectively; up from 72.6% general patient satisfaction with their current regimen at screening visit. Physicians showed a similar improvement in satisfaction to 96.4%, 97.1%, and 95.8, respectively, up from 27.3% satisfaction with previous regimen. Patient’s compliance increased up from 86% at the beginning of the study to a mean of 96.2% by the end of the study. A total of 96% ± 0.8 of Irbesartan population were satisfied with their Irbesartan regimen. Reasons for prescribing a specific antihypertensive class were identified as efficacy, safety, and cost. Angiotensin-Receptor-Blockers were the antihypertensive of choice for 68.9% of physicians due to its efficacy (96.5%) and safety (85.9%). The majority (91.49%) of side effects were recorded as being ‘mild’, no serious adverse events were recorded.