Prevention and treatment of hypertension in everyday pharmacy practice

Abstract

Hypertension is a major risk factor for stroke, heart disease and kidney disease. It is highly prevalent, in many cases undiagnosed and in many diagnosed patients poorly controlled. According to the World Health Organization hypertension remains a major health problem in most countries due to insufficient hypertension prevention and control at community level. Therefore, priorities in management of hypertension should be lifestyle changes and improvement of compliance/adherence with therapy. Community pharmacists are the most highly accessible members of the primary health care team. Therefore community pharmacists have great potential for hypertension prevention, detection and better control of the disease. Advice, information and referral by community pharmacists have been demonstrated to significantly improve adherence to antihypertensive therapy and improve blood pressure control. Pharmacists should focus on motivation and information regarding lifestyle changes, motivation on improvement of adherence and motivation and education on self-measurement of blood pressure.