Patient Reaction to Information and Motivation Factors in Long‐Term Treatment with Antihypertensive Drugs

Abstract

To learn more about the patient-physician relationship, various aspects of information and communication, patient desires and complaints, a questionnaire form was mailed to 3 groups of male hypertensive patients. Group A consisted of 264 patients, response rate 61% (160 patients), originating from the employees'' health service at 2 factories in Norway, and groups B (drug-treated) and C (not drug-treated) comprised 441 patients, response rate 82% (362 patients), and 328 patients, response rate 81% (265 patients), respectively, from the hypertension trial of the Oslo Study. Information and/or communication failure was observed in all groups, more in group A than in groups B and C. More information was wanted by 50-75% of the patients, especially in written form. Of the patients, > 1/2 expressed complaints which might have been misinterpreted as being due to drug treatment. With the exception of asthenia/drowsiness, impotence and podagra, which occurred more frequently in group B than in group C, the pattern of complaints was similar in the 2 groups.