Full Coverage for Hypertension Drugs in Rural Communities in China

Details

• Alternative Title:
  Am J Manag Care
• Personal Author:
  Yu, Baorong ; Zhang, Xiaojuan ; Wang, Guijing
• Description:
  Background ; The control rate for hypertension is unacceptably low worldwide, and poor adherence to medication is a primary reason. ; Objectives ; To evaluate the impact of full coverage for hypertension drugs on adherence to medication, medical costs, and hypertension control in Shandong Province, China. ; Methods ; In November 2009, we interviewed 110 hypertensive patients who had been participating in a free medication program since May 2008 and 241 hypertensive patients who were not participating. We used a 1:1 propensity-score matching technique to obtain matched samples of 102 program participants (intervention) and 102 nonparticipants (control). We used univariate analysis to compare patient drug-taking behaviors, medical costs, and hypertension control between the 2 groups. ; Results ; All intervention patients took ≥1 drugs for hypertension control and 93% of them took ≥3 such drugs, 15 control patients (15%) did not take any, and only 39% took 3 or more (P <.001). Three-fourths (75%) of the intervention patients took the prescribed drugs regularly, whereas 66% of the control group (P = .034) did so. Participation in the program was associated with lower annual out-of-pocket medical costs both overall and for outpatient services (P <.001 for both). ; Conclusions ; Low-income rural residents in China receiving free drugs had enhanced medication adherence and reduced total medical costs. Providing hypertension drugs at no charge may be a promising strategy for preventing costly cardiovascular events associated with hypertension in China and other parts of the world with growing rates of cardiovascular disease.
• Subjects:
  • Antihypertensive Agents
  • Drug Costs
  • Financing, Government
  • Financing, Personal
  • Humans
  • Hypertension
  • Medication Adherence
  • Poverty
  • Propensity Score
  • Rural Population
• Source:
  Am J Manag Care. 19(1):e22-e29
• Pubmed ID:
  23379776
• Pubmed Central ID:
  PMC4538950
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Funding:
  CC999999/ImCDC/Intramural CDC HHSUnited States/
• Place as Subject:
  China
• Volume:
  19
• Issue:
  1
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/32939/cdc_32939_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 337.17 KB]
• Collection(s):
  CDC Public Access
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:33c1c9c830126e84be4cfff960605893699ac97ed194ab2a4c3610c888ef40e8