Patients' acceptance of antihypertensive therapy to prevent cardiovascular disease: a comparison between South Asians and Caucasians in the United Kingdom

BACKGROUND: The importance of patients' involvement in decision-making is because of their right to know the risks and benefits they accept in undertaking treatment and the as yet unproven hope that this will improve compliance. The aim of this study was to establish local people's willingness to receive antihypertensive treatment for primary prevention of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and to explore the role of ethnicity. METHODS: In a cross-sectional study with face-to-face interview South Asian and Caucasian men and women aged 35-74, with and without history of CVD, were interviewed. Minimal clinically important differences were measured for three different baseline CVD risks (10, 20, and 40% in 10 years) using a standard method with risks presented both graphically and numerically and expressed in positive and negative terms. RESULTS: A total of 262 (110 South Asians) participants were interviewed. Overall, South Asians expressed smaller median minimal clinically important differences than Caucasians, 1 and 4%, respectively. Up to 17% of participants in both ethnic groups indicated that they would not take medication regardless of the benefits. The proportion of South Asian men unwilling to take medication regardless of benefit was higher than Caucasian men for all scenarios, 17.2 versus 10.7% for scenario 1 and 12.1 versus 5.6% for scenario 2, respectively. South Asians of both sexes who would consider therapy required less benefit for acceptance in all three scenarios compared with the Caucasians. CONCLUSION: South Asian participants were at least likely as Caucasians to accept antihypertensive treatment as the primary prevention therapy and they should be targeted for this type of therapy.