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Socio-economic status influences blood pressure control despite equal access to care

Socio-economic status influences blood pressure control despite equal access to care Objective.Denmark has a health care system with free and equal access to care irrespective of age and socio-economic status (SES). We conducted a cross-sectional study to investigate a possible association between SES and blood pressure (BP) control of hypertensive patients treated in general practice.Methods.We enrolled 184 general practices and 5260 hypertensive patients. The general practitioners reported information about BP and diagnosis of diabetes. Information about education, income, antihypertensive drug treatment and other co-morbidity was retrieved from relevant registers from Statistics Denmark. The outcome measure was BP control defined as BP <140/90 mmHg in general and <130/80 mmHg in diabetics.Results.Patients <65 years and with an educational level of 1012 years had increased odds ratio (OR) of BP control compared to patients with an educational level <10 years. Patients 65 years had increased OR of BP control if they were married/cohabiting as compared to being single, whereas education and income had no impact in this age group. Diabetics had significantly reduced odds of BP control irrespective of age, educational or income level.Conclusions.Despite equal access to care for all patients, SES had significant impact on BP control in this survey. Diabetes and cardiovascular disease also had a substantial influence irrespective of age, educational and income level. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Family Practice Oxford University Press

Socio-economic status influences blood pressure control despite equal access to care

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References (35)

Publisher
Oxford University Press
Copyright
© The Author 2012. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.
Subject
Original Article
ISSN
0263-2136
eISSN
1460-2229
DOI
10.1093/fampra/cmr130
pmid
22234552
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Objective.Denmark has a health care system with free and equal access to care irrespective of age and socio-economic status (SES). We conducted a cross-sectional study to investigate a possible association between SES and blood pressure (BP) control of hypertensive patients treated in general practice.Methods.We enrolled 184 general practices and 5260 hypertensive patients. The general practitioners reported information about BP and diagnosis of diabetes. Information about education, income, antihypertensive drug treatment and other co-morbidity was retrieved from relevant registers from Statistics Denmark. The outcome measure was BP control defined as BP <140/90 mmHg in general and <130/80 mmHg in diabetics.Results.Patients <65 years and with an educational level of 1012 years had increased odds ratio (OR) of BP control compared to patients with an educational level <10 years. Patients 65 years had increased OR of BP control if they were married/cohabiting as compared to being single, whereas education and income had no impact in this age group. Diabetics had significantly reduced odds of BP control irrespective of age, educational or income level.Conclusions.Despite equal access to care for all patients, SES had significant impact on BP control in this survey. Diabetes and cardiovascular disease also had a substantial influence irrespective of age, educational and income level.

Journal

Family PracticeOxford University Press

Published: Oct 10, 2012

Keywords: Socio-economic status hypertension primary care education access to care

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