Exploring Factors Affecting Voluntary Adoption of Electronic Medical Records Among Physicians and Clinical Assistants of Small or Solo Private General Practice Clinics.

The health care reform initiative led by the Hong Kong government's Food and Health Bureau has started the implementation of an electronic sharing platform to provide an information infrastructure that enables public hospitals and private clinics to share their electronic medical records (EMRs) for improved access to patients' health care information. However, previous attempts to convince the private clinics to adopt EMRs to document health information have faced challenges, as the EMR adoption has been voluntary. The lack of electronic data shared by private clinics carries direct impacts to the efficacy of electronic record sharing between public and private healthcare providers. To increase the likelihood of buy-in, it is essential to proactively identify the users' and organizations' needs and capabilities before large-scale implementation. As part of the reform initiative, this study examined factors affecting the adoption of EMRs in small or solo private general practice clinics, by analyzing the experiences and opinions of the physicians and clinical assistants during the pilot implementation of the technology, with the purpose to learn from it before full-scale rollout. In-depth, semistructured interviews were conducted with 23 physicians and clinical assistants from seven small or solo private general practice clinics to evaluate their experiences, expectations, and opinions regarding the deployment of EMRs. Interview transcripts were content analyzed to identify key factors. Factors affecting the adoption of EMRs to record and manage health care information were identified as follows: system interface design; system functions; stability and reliability of hardware, software, and computing networks; financial and time costs; task and outcome performance, work practice, and clinical workflow; physical space in clinics; trust in technology; users' information technology literacy; training and technical support; and social and organizational influences. The factors are interrelated with the others. The adoption factors identified are multifaceted, ranging from technological characteristics, clinician-technology interactions, skills and knowledge, and the user-workflow-technology fit. Other findings, which have been relatively underrepresented in previous studies, contribute unique insights about the influence of work and social environment on the adoption of EMRs, including limited clinic space and the effects of physicians' decision to use the technology on clinical staffs' adoption decisions. Potential strategies to address the concerns, overcome adoption barriers, and define relevant policies are discussed.

Associations between adoption of eHealth management module and optimal control of HbA1c in diabetes patients.

In January 2021, the eHealth App was launched in Hong Kong by the Hong Kong government to support the Electronic Health Record Sharing System (eHRSS). A Health Management Module in the eHealth App introduced new functions to record blood pressure, blood sugar, and heart rate, and downloading and sharing records. This study aims to compare the level of glycaemic control between users of the eHealth App and non-users. Type 2 diabetes patients who have joined the eHRSS with existing haemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) level records are recruited. Correlations between predictors and optimal HbA1c control (<7%) are examined using logistic regression analyses. A total of 109,823 participants are included, with 76,356 non-users of eHealth App, 31,723 users of eHealth App, and 1744 users of the eHealth Management Module together with the App. We collect HbA1c values from Jan 2021 to May 2022, and they are 6 months after the use of the App on average. Users of the eHealth Management Module are found to have more optimal HbA1c levels across all subgroups, with the strongest effect observed in younger females (aOR = 1.66, 95% CI = 1.27-2.17). eHealth App usage is also positively associated with optimal HbA1c levels, particularly amongst younger females (aOR = 1.17, 95% CI = 1.08-1.26). Overall, users of eHealth App and eHealth Management Module demonstrate more optimal HbA1c levels when compared with non-users, particularly among younger adults and females. These findings support its potential adoption in diabetes patients. Future studies should examine the impact of eHealth interventions on other clinical targets and diabetes complications.

Usage of electronic health record (eHR) viewer among healthcare professionals (HCProfs): A territory-wide study of 3972 participants.

BACKGROUND: The Electronic Health Record Sharing System (eHRSS) is an electronic platform for two-way communication between the public and private sectors in Hong Kong. The authorised healthcare professionals (HCProfs) could access and upload patients' health records on the eHR Viewer in the eHRSS. This study aims to evaluate the usage of eHR viewer among the HCProfs from the private sector by 1) examining the correlation of various factors and the data access of eHR viewer; 2) investigating the trend on data access and upload to eHR viewer by time period and domain. METHODS: A total of 3972 HCProfs from private hospitals, group practice, and solo practice were included in the study. Regression analysis was performed to identify the correlation between various factors and the data access to eHR viewer. Trends on accessing and data uploading to eHR viewer by time period and domains were evaluated. Trends on data uploading to eHR viewer by time period and domains were presented in the line chart as well. FINDINGS: All types of HCProfs had a higher likelihood of accessing the eHR viewer as compared to those from private hospitals. HCProfs with specialities (apart from anaesthesia) had a higher possibility of accessing the eHR viewer than general practitioners without specialities. HCProfs participating in the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Programme and the eHealth System (Subsidies) (eHS(S)) were more likely to access the eHR viewer. The overall trend of accessing eHR viewer was rising notably from 2016 to 2022, every domain showed rising trends, especially the laboratory domain with a 5-times increase between 2016 and 2022. CONCLUSION: HCProfs with speciality were more likely to access the eHR viewer (except anaesthesiology), compared with the general practitioners. Participation in the PPP programmes and eHS(S) also increased the access rate of the eHR viewer. Besides, the use of eHR viewer (accessing and data uploading) would be influenced by social policy and the epidemic. Future research should focus on the impact of government programmes on eHRSS adoption.

Duration of initial antihypertensive prescription and medication adherence: a cohort study among 203,259 newly diagnosed hypertensive patients.

BACKGROUND: Optimal adherence with antihypertensive medications is crucial to prevent hypertension-related complications. This study evaluated whether the duration of initial antihypertensive prescription is associated with better medication adherence in a large sample of Chinese hypertensive patients. METHODS AND RESULTS: From a validated clinical database which consists of all patients in the public healthcare sector in Hong Kong, all patients on their first-ever antihypertensive agent from 2001 to 2005 (N=203,259) were included and followed-up for 12 months (and up to 5 years in separate analyses). The average age was 58.7 years (SD 17.3), and the overall rate of optimal adherence (as measured by having the Proportion of Days Covered≥0.80) was 32.4%. The proportion of patients whose initial prescriptions lasted for ≤6 days; 7-14 days; 15-28 days and ≥29 days was 23.7%, 24.3%, 15.1% and 37.0%, respectively. The corresponding proportion of optimal adherence was 18.1%, 20.1%, 31.0% and 50.3%. The binary logistic regression analysis showed that after controlling for age, sex, socioeconomic status, service type, drug class, and district of residence, those whose initial prescription was 7-14 days (adjusted odds ratio [AOR]=1.17, 95% C.I. 1.12-1.22); 15-28 days (AOR=1.90, 95% C.I. 1.82-1.99) and ≥29 days (AOR=4.13, 95% C.I. 3.96-4.31) were significantly more likely to be adherent than those who were prescribed for ≤6 days (all p<0.001). These findings remained significant in separate analyses where the period of follow-up was extended to 5 years. CONCLUSIONS: Shorter duration of first antihypertensive prescriptions was associated with poorer medication adherence, and this practice should be avoided if possible.

The incidence of cancer deaths among hypertensive patients in a large Chinese population: a cohort study.

Current evidence is mixed regarding the association between antihypertensive prescriptions and cancer mortality. We evaluated this association in a large Chinese hypertensive population. We followed for five years all patients who were prescribed their first-ever antihypertensive agents between 2001 and 2005 in a public healthcare sector of Hong Kong. The association between antihypertensive drug class and cancer mortality was evaluated by Cox proportional hazard models with propensity score matching. Age, gender, socioeconomic status, service settings, district of residence, proportion of days covered reflecting medication adherence, and the number of comorbidities were adjusted. From 217,910 eligible patients, 9500 (4.4%) died from cancer within five years after their first-ever antihypertensive prescription. Most cancer deaths occurred in the digestive (38.9%) and respiratory system (30.4%); the breast (6.2%); and the lympho-hematopoietic tissues (5.3%). The proportion of patients who died from cancer was the highest in the calcium channel blocker (CCB) group (6.5%), followed by thiazide diuretics (4.4%), angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors (4.2%) and ß-blockers (2.6%). When compared with ß-blockers, patients prescribed CCBs (Adjusted Hazard Ratio [AHR]=1.406, 95% C.I. 1.334-1.482, p<0.001) were more likely to die from cancer. Thiazide users were also more likely to suffer from cancer deaths (AHR=1.364, 95% C.I. 1.255-1.483, p<0.001), but became insignificant in stratified analysis. The association between cancer mortality and use of CCB, and perhaps thaizide, may alert physicians to the need for more meticulous and comprehensive care of these patients in clinical practice. We recommend prospective studies to evaluate cause-and-effect relationships of these associations.

Private primary care physicians' perspectives on factors affecting the adoption of electronic medical records: a qualitative pre-implementation study.

BACKGROUND: Use of electronic medical records (EMR) has the potential to offer quality and safety benefits, but without the adoption of the technology, the benefits will not be realized. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to identify the factors perceived as relevant by private physicians when considering EMR adoption. METHODS: A qualitative pre-implementation study was conducted using semi-structured, face to face interviews to explore the perspectives of physicians (n=16) operating in private clinics on the factors affecting their adoption of EMR. A multilevel, work system approach and the immersion/crystallization data analysis technique guided the researchers in examining the data, identifying patterns and key themes, and extracting representative quotes to illustrate these themes. RESULTS: The major factors associated with EMR adoption, which relate to the five categories of a work system, were system usefulness; user interface design; technical support; cost; system reliability; the privacy, confidentiality, and security of patient information; physical space in the clinic; data migration process; adverse work-related factors; and the computer and systems skills of physicians. CONCLUSIONS: Pre-implementation identification of factors important to adoption can allow system developers to focus proactively on these factors when developing the system and its implementation strategies, to maximize the likelihood of successful introduction.

The effectiveness of metoprolol versus atenolol on prevention of all-cause and cardiovascular mortality in a large Chinese population: a cohort study.

BACKGROUND: Existing trials almost exclusively used atenolol to represent the entire ß-blocker class, and it is unknown whether there are intra-class differences. We compared the incidence of all-cause and cardiovascular mortality, blood pressure (BP) control and adherence levels between patients newly prescribed atenolol vs. metoprolol tartrate. METHODS: This cohort study included all public, clinical settings in Hong Kong between 2001 and 2005, followed up till 2010. We compared outcomes between 22,479 new atenolol users and 29,972 new metoprolol tartrate users. Cox proportional hazard regression analysis was used to evaluate the difference in mortality between drugs. Binary logistic regression analyses were used to compare the BP control rates and adherence levels. RESULTS: 7.0% and 13.1% died of any causes among atenolol and metoprolol users, respectively (p<0.005). The incidence of cardiovascular mortality among atenolol users was lower than metoprolol users (1.4% vs. 3.7%, p<0.001). When compared with atenolol users, metoprolol users were 1.13-fold (95% C.I. 1.06-1.20) and 1.56-fold (95% C.I. 1.27-1.90), respectively, more likely to experience all-cause and cardiovascular mortality; less likely to be drug adherent (adjusted relative risk [aRR]: 0.95, 95% C.I. 0.90-0.99, p=0.013); and less likely to achieve optimal overall BP control (aRR 0.94, 95% C.I. 0.90-0.99, p=0.023) and diastolic BP control (aRR 0.86, 95% C.I. 0.77-0.97, p=0.013). CONCLUSIONS: These findings imply an intra-class difference for beta-blockers when used as first-line antihypertensive prescriptions in real-life clinical settings which inform future clinical guidelines. More outcome studies on the effectiveness of different subtypes within other major antihypertensive drug classes are warranted.

Factors associated with multimorbidity and its link with poor blood pressure control among 223,286 hypertensive patients.

Multimorbidity has become the norm worldwide as populations age. It remains, however, infrequently researched. This study evaluated factors associated with multimorbidity in a predominantly Chinese hypertensive population. We included all adult patients prescribed their first antihypertensive agents in the entire public sector in Hong Kong from a validated database. Multimorbidity was defined as having one or more medical conditions (cardiovascular diseases; respiratory diseases; diabetes or impaired fasting glucose; renal disease) in addition to hypertension. We studied the prevalence of multimorbidity and performed multinomial regression analyses to evaluate factors independently associated with multimorbidity. 223,286 hypertensive patients (average age of 59.9 years, SD 17.6) were included. The prevalence of having 0, 1 and ≥ 2 additional conditions was 59.6%, 32.8% and 7.5%, respectively. The most common conditions were cardiovascular disease (24.2%) and diabetes (23.0%), followed by respiratory disorders (14.6%) and renal disease (10.9%). Older age (>50 years), male sex, lower household income, receipt of social security allowance and suboptimal blood pressure control (>140 mmHg or >90 mmHg; >130 mmHg or >80 mmHg for diabetes patients; AOR = 3.38-4.49) were significantly associated with multimorbidity. There exists a synergistic effect among these variables as older (≥ 70 years), male patients receiving security allowance had substantially higher prevalence of multimorbidity (19.9% vs 7.5% among all patients). Multimorbidity is very common in hypertensive patients and its prevalence increased markedly with the presence of risk factors identified in this study. Hypertensive patients with multimorbidities should receive more meticulous clinical care as their blood pressure control tends to be poorer.

Cardiovascular mortality in hypertensive patients newly prescribed perindopril vs. lisinopril: a 5-year cohort study of 15,622 Chinese subjects.

BACKGROUND: Perindopril and lisinopril are two common ACE inhibitors prescribed for management of hypertension. Few studies have evaluated their comparative effectiveness to reduce mortality. This study compared the all-cause and cardiovascular related mortality among patients newly prescribed ACE inhibitors. METHODS: All adult patients newly prescribed perindopril or lisinopril from 2001 to 2005 in all public clinics or hospitals in Hong Kong were retrospectively evaluated, and followed up until 2010. Patients prescribed the ACE inhibitors for less than a month were excluded. The all-cause mortality and cardiovascular-specific (i.e. coronary heart disease, heart failure and stroke) mortality were compared. Cox proportional hazard regression model was used to assess the mortality, controlling for age, sex, socioeconomic status, patient types, the presence of comorbidities, and medication adherence as measured by the proportion of days covered. An additional model using propensity scores was performed to minimize indication bias. RESULTS: A total of 15,622 patients were included in this study, in which 6910 were perindopril users and 8712 lisinopril users. The all-cause mortality (22.2% vs. 20.0%, p<0.005) and cardiovascular mortality (6.5% vs. 5.6%, p<0.005) were higher among lisinopril users than perindopril users. From regression analyses, lisinopril users were 1.09-fold (95% C.I. 1.01-1.16) and 1.18-fold (95% C.I. 1.02-1.35) more likely to die from any-cause and cardiovascular diseases, respectively. Age-stratified analysis showed that this significant difference was observed only among patients aged >70 years. The additional models controlled for propensity scores yielded comparable results. CONCLUSIONS: The long-term all-cause and cardiovascular related mortality rates of lisinopril users was significantly different from those of perindopril users. These findings showed that intra-class variation on mortality exists among ACE inhibitors among those aged 70 years or older. Future studies should consider a longer, large-scale randomized controlled trial to compare the effectiveness between different medications in the ACEI class, especially among the elderly.

Exposure to air pollutants and mortality in hypertensive patients according to demography: a 10 year case-crossover study.

This study evaluated whether short term exposures to NO2, O3, particulate matter <10 mm in diameter (PM10) were associated with higher risk of mortality. A total of 223,287 hypertensive patients attended public health-care services and newly prescribed at least 1 antihypertensive agent were followed-up for up to 5 years. A time-stratified, bi-directional case-crossover design was adopted. For all-cause mortality, significant positive associations were observed for NO2 and PM10 at lag 0-3 days per 10 µg/m(3) increase in concentration (excess risks 1.187%-2.501%). Significant positive associations were found for O3 at lag 1 and 2 days and the excess risks were 1.654% and 1.207%, respectively. We found similarly positive associations between these pollutants and respiratory disease mortality. These results were significant among those aged ≥65 years and in cold seasons only. Older hypertensive patients are susceptible to all-cause and respiratory disease-specific deaths from these air pollutants in cold weather.

Factors associated with adoption of the electronic health record system among primary care physicians.

BACKGROUND: A territory-wide Internet-based electronic patient record allows better patient care in different sectors. The engagement of private physicians is one of the major facilitators for implementation, but there is limited information about the current adoption level of electronic medical record (eMR) among private primary care physicians. OBJECTIVE: This survey measured the adoption level, enabling factors, and hindering factors of eMR, among private physicians in Hong Kong. It also evaluated the key functions and the popularity of electronic systems and vendors used by these private practitioners. METHODS: A central registry consisting of 4324 private practitioners was set up. Invitations for self-administered surveys and the completed questionnaires were sent and returned via fax, email, postal mail, and on-site clinic visits. Current users and non-users of eMR system were compared according to their demographic and practice characteristics. Student's t tests and chi-square tests were used for continuous and categorical variables, respectively. RESULTS: A total of 524 completed surveys (response rate 524/4405 11.90%) were collected. The proportion of using eMR in private clinics was 79.6% (417/524). When compared with non-users, the eMR users were younger (users: 48.4 years SD 10.6 years vs non-users: 61.7 years SD 10.2 years, P<.001); more were female physicians (users: 80/417, 19.2% vs non-users: 14/107, 13.1%, P=.013); possessed less clinical experience (with more than20 years of practice: users: 261/417, 62.6% vs non-user: 93/107, 86.9%, P<.001); fewer worked under a Health Maintenance Organization (users: 347/417, 83.2% vs non-users: 97/107, 90.7%, P<.001) and more worked with practice partners (users: 126/417, 30.2% vs non-users: 4/107, 3.7%, P<.001). Efficiency (379/417, 90.9%) and reduction of medical errors (229/417, 54.9%) were the major enabling factors, while patient-unfriendliness (58/107, 54.2%) and limited consultation time (54/107, 50.5%) were the most commonly reported hindering factors. The key functions of computer software among eMR users consisted of electronic patient registration system (376/417, 90.2%), drug dispensing system (328/417, 78.7%) and electronic drug labels (296/417, 71.0%). SoftLink Clinic Solution was the most popular vendor (160/417, 38.4%). CONCLUSIONS: These findings identified several physician groups who should be targeted for more assistance on eMR installation and its adoption. Future studies should address the barriers of using Internet-based eMR to enhance its adoption.

Medication adherence to first-line antihypertensive drug class in a large Chinese population.

PURPOSE: Suboptimal adherence to antihypertensive agents leads to adverse clinical outcomes. This study aims to evaluate the association between first-line antihypertensive drug class and medication adherence in a large Chinese population. METHODS: All patients prescribed ≥ one antihypertensive drug in 2001-2003 and 2005 who have paid at least two consecutive clinic visits in the public healthcare system of Hong Kong were included. We excluded patients who have followed-up in the clinics for ≤ 30 days. Interval-based Proportion of Days Covered (PDC) was used to assess medication adherence. All patients were followed-up for up to 5 years. Binary logistic regression analysis was used to evaluate the factors associated with optimal adherence, defined as PDC ≥ 80%. RESULTS: From 147,914 eligible patients, 69.2% were adherent to the antihypertensive prescriptions. When compared with angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEIs), patients initially prescribed α-blockers (adjusted odds ratio [AOR]=0.234, 95% C.I. 0.215-0.256), ß-blockers (AOR=0.447, 95% C.I. 0.420, 0.477), thiazide diuretics (AOR=0.431 95% C.I. 0.399, 0.466) and calcium channel blockers (AOR=0.451, 95% C.I. 0.423, 0.481) were significantly less likely to be drug adherers. Angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs) and fixed-dose combination therapies were similarly likely to be medication adherent. Older age, male gender, visits in general out-patient clinics, residence in urbanized regions, and the presence of comorbidity were positively associated with optimal drug adherence. CONCLUSION: Patients receiving initial prescriptions of ACEIs, ARB and combination therapy had more favorable adherence profiles than the other major antihypertensive classes in real-life clinical practice.

Drug adherence and the incidence of coronary heart disease- and stroke-specific mortality among 218,047 patients newly prescribed an antihypertensive medication: a five-year cohort study.

BACKGROUND: Randomized trials have shown that optimal adherence to antihypertensive agents could protect against cardiovascular diseases, but whether adherence reduces cardiovascular deaths in community settings has not been explored so fully. This study evaluates the association between antihypertensive adherence and cardiovascular (coronary heart disease and stroke) mortality in the primary care settings. METHODS: From a territory-wide database in Hong Kong, we included all patients who were prescribed their first-ever antihypertensive agents in the years between 2001 and 2005 from the public healthcare sector. All patients were followed up for five years, and assigned as having poor (Proportion of Days Covered [PDC]<40%), intermediate (40-79%), and high (≥ 80%) adherence to antihypertensive agents. The association between antihypertensive adherence and cardiovascular mortality was evaluated by using the Cox proportional hazard models. RESULTS: From a total of 218,047 eligible patients, 3825 patients (1.75%) died of cardiovascular disease within five years after having received their first-ever antihypertensive agents. The proportions of patients having poor, intermediate, and high medication adherence were 32.9%, 12.1%, and 55.0%, respectively. Higher adherence levels at PDC 40%-79% (HR=0.46, 95% C.I. 0.41-0.52, p<0.001) and ≥ 80% (HR=0.91, 95% C.I. 0.85-0.98, p=0.012) were significantly less likely to be associated with mortality than the poor adherence (PDC0.040) group. CONCLUSIONS: Better antihypertensive adherence was associated with lower cardiovascular mortality. This highlights the need to promote adherence through strategies which have been proved to be effective in clinical settings.

Predictors of the incidence of all-cause mortality and deaths due to diabetes and renal diseases among patients newly prescribed antihypertensive agents: a cohort study.

BACKGROUND: Randomized trials have shown that the major antihypertensive drug classes are similarly effective to reduce mortality, but whether these drug class difference exists in clinical practice has been scarcely explored. This study evaluated the association between antihypertensive drug class, all-cause mortality and deaths due to diabetes or renal disease in real-life clinical settings. METHODS: A clinical database in Hong Kong included all patients who were prescribed their first-ever antihypertensive agents between 2001 and 2005 from the public healthcare sector. All patients were followed up for five years, and grouped according to the initial antihypertensive prescription. The associations between antihypertensive drug class, all-cause mortality or combined diabetes and renal mortality, respectively, were evaluated by Cox proportional hazard models. RESULTS: From 218,047 eligible patients, 33,288 (15.3%) died within five years after their first-ever antihypertensive prescription and among which 1055 patients (0.48%) died of diabetes or renal disease. After adjusted for age, gender, socioeconomic status, service settings, district of residence, medication adherence, and the number of comorbidities, each drug class was similarly likely to be associated with mortality due to diabetes or renal disease [Adjusted Hazard Ratios (AHR) ranged from 0.92 to 1.73, p=0.287-0.939] and all-cause mortality (AHR ranged from 0.83 to 1.02) except for beta-blockers (AHR=0.815, 95% C.I. 0.68-0.87, p=0.024) when ACEI was used as a reference group in propensity score-adjusted analysis. CONCLUSIONS: These findings provide real-life evidence reinforcing that any major antihypertensive drug class is suitable as a first-line agent for management of hypertension as recommended by international guidelines.

Initial antihypertensive prescription and switching: a 5 year cohort study from 250,851 patients.

PURPOSE: Adverse effects of antihypertensive therapy incur substantial cost. We evaluated whether any major classes of antihypertensive drugs were significantly associated with switching as a proxy measure of medication side effects in a large Chinese population in Hong Kong. METHODS: From a clinical database, all adult patients newly prescribed an antihypertensive mono-therapy in Hong Kong between the years 2001-2003 and 2005 were included. Those who paid only one visit, died or stayed in the cohort for <180 days after the prescription, or prescribed more than one antihypertensive agent were excluded. The factors associated with switching at 180 days were evaluated by multivariate regression analyses. Age, gender, payment status, service type, district of residence, drug class, systolic and diastolic blood pressure levels were predictor variables. RESULTS: From 250,851 subjects, 159,813 patients were eligible. A total of 6,163 (3.9%) switched their medications within 180 days. Patients prescribed thiazide diuretics had the highest switching rate (5.6%), followed by ACEIs (4.5%), CCBs (4.4%) and beta-blockers (3.2%). When compared with ACEIs, patients on thiazide diuretics were significantly more likely to be switchers (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] 1.49, 95% C.I. 1.31-1.69, p<0.001), whilst patients prescribed CCBs and beta-blockers were similarly likely to have switching. Following these patients up for 5 years showed that thiazide had the most marked increase in switching rate. CONCLUSIONS: The higher rates of switching among thiazide diuretics in this study might raise a probably greater incidence of their adverse effects in this Chinese population, yet other factors might also influence switching rates. Patients prescribed thiazide diuretics for longer term should be observed for their intolerability.

Antihypertensive prescriptions over a 10-year period in a large Chinese population.

BACKGROUND: International guidelines recommending antihypertensive prescriptions for the management of hypertension have been published in the past decade. Beta-blocker use was discouraged by a significant body of evidence and angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEIs) or angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs) were found more effective among younger patients. This study aims to evaluate the trends in prescription profiles in a large Chinese population because patterns of antihypertensive agent dispensation represent important information for physicians and policymakers. METHODS: From clinical databases consisting of all patient records in the public health-care system of Hong Kong, we examined all antihypertensive prescriptions according to the drug classes (thiazide diuretics, alpha-blockers, beta-blockers, calcium channel blockers (CCBs), ACEIs, ARBs, fixed-dose combinations, and polytherapy (2, ≥3)) between 2001 and 2010. We retrieved >6.3 million prescription episodes for 223,287 patients. RESULTS: The average age of the patients was 59.9 years (SD = 17.6), and 54.8% were women. According to prescription episodes, the most commonly prescribed medications were beta-blockers (31.7%) and CCBs (29.2%), followed by ACEIs (13.9%), thiazide diuretics (5.0%), and alpha-blockers (4.5%). Between 2001 and 2010, the prescription proportions of beta-blockers decreased from 41.5% to 21.5%, whereas that of ARBs increased from 0.5% to 1.0% (P < 0.001, χ(2) test for trend). It was found that the decline of beta-blockers (71.0% to 35.4%) and increase in ARB prescriptions (0.4% to 1.0%) were particularly marked among younger subjects aged <55 years. CONCLUSIONS: These findings provided information on the prescription patterns of antihypertensive agents in a large Chinese population. It sets a future research direction to study the various reasons influencing these drug class-specific trends.