Improving Drug Adherence Using Fixed Combinations Caused Beneficial Treatment Outcomes and Decreased Health-Care Costs in Patients with Hypertension

Abstract

We enrolled 196 patients with hypertension who were already being treated with free-drug combinations of angiotensin-II receptor blocker (ARB) and amlodipine. The free-drug combinations of ARB and amlodipine were replaced with the same dose of the fixed-dose combinations. The average home blood pressure (BP) in all patients receiving fixed-dose combinations was significantly lower than those receiving free-drug combinations (131 ± 10/75 ± 8 vs. 136 ± 11/77 ± 9 mm Hg, P < .01) accompanied with increasing drug adherence. After lowering BP by fixed-dose combinations, the costs for medications decreased by 31% over the 3 months.

• adherence
• fixed-dose combinations
• hypertension
• blood pressure control
• health-care cost
• antihypertensive drug

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

We would like to convey our special thanks to Mrs. Tomoko Moriyama for technical support.

Declaration of interest

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the article.