ASSESSMENT OF APPROPRIATENESS OF DRUG USAGE IN CHINESE HYPERTENSIVE PATIENTS AND HYPERTENSIVE PATIENTS WITH TYPE 2 DIABETES

XIA LI¹, YUJIE YANG¹, JING ZHENG², YE LI¹, DENAN LIN^2*, AND YUNPENG CAI^1*

¹Research Center for Biomedical Information Technology, Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen, P.R. China - ²Shenzhen Health Information Center, Shenzhen, P.R. China

Background: Hypertension remains a major global public health problem. The objective of this study was to evaluate the appropriateness of drug usage in Chinese hypertensive patients.

Methodology: Patients data with drug usage were collected from Shenzhen in China. Student’ t test was used to compare the diastolic blood pressure (DBP) and systolic blood pressure (SBP) differences.

Results: A total of 58,971 hypertensive patients and 12,732 hypertensive patients with type 2 diabetes were studied. The abnor- mal DBP (mean: 81 mmHg) and SBP (mean: above 130 mmHg) observed in two groups indicated both populations were correctly diagnosed with hypertension. Those hypertensive patients with type 2 diabetes got significant higher SBP (mean: 133 mmHg), sugge- sting they were more severe. After a period of at least 3 years follow up investigations, the SBP of patients with only hypertension dropped to a mean value of 129 mmHg. Hypertensive patients with type 2 diabetes also showed significant SBP decreasing changes, with the mean of SBP around 130 mmHg. The DBP of two groups decreased to the normal range after 3 years (mean: around 79 mmHg).

Significance: These results supported the reasonability of current drug usage and had extensive applicability for other hyper- tensive patients’ treatment.