engleski

Questionnaire survey as a tool in drug hypertension investigation in Croatia

The questionnaire surveys are one of the methods for gathering information in different areas. Because of the importance of hypertension as a major risk for both stroke and coronary artery disease, various aspects of hypertension were evaluated by using a survey as a tool. This was done by a Medline search of the medical literature. The second aim was to develop the methodology and to prepare a questionnaire which could be used subsequently in hypertension investigation. In order to fulfill the second aim, we prepared three questionnaires for primary care setting by which we have closed the circle of hypertension from different sides, 1) physician - medical information about the patient, 2) physician - knowledge and adherence with guidelines, and 3) patient - satisfaction with the treatment. It is very important from the methodological point of view to survey a representative sample of target populations (physicians and hypertensive patients). This was done by disproportionate, stratified (for country and size of the town) random sampling from the population of primary care physicians, and systematic sampling from the population of patients (non-institutionalized patients, aged 18 and older, with physician diagnosed hypertension, treated with antihypertensive medications for at least 6 months, and able to visit doctors office in person). Planned sample sizes were n=153 physicians ; n=1530 patients in order to meet statistical tests power for the main findings of at least 90% (with p=0.05 and desired precision of +/- 5%). The objective of the study was to evaluate current hypertension treatment patterns in the Croatian population, to determine the characteristics of patients with hypertension, to evaluate the level of blood-pressure control in the selected population, to analyze drug usage (which drug, dosage, compliance, economic aspects of drug therapy), to evaluate the patients satisfaction with the hypertension therapy, and to investigate the familiarity with hypertension treatment guidelines usage by primary care physicians. We may conclude that questionnaire survey will describe the current situation in hypertension management in Croatia, allowing identification of problem areas to address in the future. In addition, a similar survey could be used after a considerable period of time for comparison with our results or for checking the improvement of hypertension control.

questionnaire survey; drug hypertension investigation; Croatia

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