Age and Comorbidities Are Associated With Therapeutic Inertia Among Older Adults With Uncontrolled Blood Pressure

Abstract

Abstract BACKGROUND Lack of initiation or escalation of blood pressure (BP) lowering medication when BP is uncontrolled, termed therapeutic inertia (TI), increases with age and may be influenced by comorbidities. METHODS We examined the association of age and comorbidities with TI in 22,665 visits with a systolic BP ≥140 mm Hg and/or diastolic BP ≥90 mm Hg among 7,415 adults age ≥65 years receiving care in clinics that implemented a hypertension quality improvement program. Generalized linear mixed models were used to determine the association of comorbidity number with TI by age group (65–74 and ≥75 years) after covariate adjustment. RESULTS Baseline mean age was 75.0 years (SD 7.8); 41.4% were male. TI occurred in 79.0% and 83.7% of clinic visits in age groups 65–74 and ≥75 years, respectively. In age group 65–74 years, prevalence ratio of TI with 2, 3–4, and ≥5 comorbidities compared with zero comorbidities was 1.07 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.04, 1.12), 1.08 (95% CI: 1.05, 1.12), and 1.15 (95% CI: 1.10, 1.20), respectively. The number of comorbidities was not associated with TI prevalence in age group ≥75 years. After implementation of the improvement program, TI declined from 80.3% to 77.2% in age group 65–74 years and from 85.0% to 82.0% in age group ≥75 years (P < 0.001 for both groups). CONCLUSIONS TI was common among older adults but not associated with comorbidities after age ≥75 years. A hypertension improvement program had limited impact on TI in older patients.