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American Morning

Why Elderly People Are Not Taking Their Medicine

Aired August 16, 2001 - 09:41   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Health news now from here in the U.S., where doctors are trying to answer a puzzling question: Why are so many elderly people who suffer from hypertension not taking medication to control it?

Our medical correspondent, Rhonda Rowland, joining us now with the study.

You talk about hypertension, it affects a lot of people.

RHONDA ROWLAND, MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT, CNN: A lot of people.

KAGAN: What kind of numbers are we talking about?

ROWLAND: Big numbers here. We're talking 41 million Americans.

KAGAN: Really!

ROWLAND: Yes. That is one in four Americans have high blood pressure. Of those, only one quarter are being treated appropriately. This has been an ongoing problem. Doctors, cardiologist have been very concerned about it, and they're trying to figure out why it is. So this new study, published in the "New England Journal of Medicine" is trying to answer those questions, as far as which group is most affected.

They found several characteristics. First of all: most of the people are over the age of 65; most do tend to have health care coverage, in fact 92% of them do. On top of that they see a doctor an average of 3 times a year.

So this really dispels the myth, Daryn, that it's a young minority male who never sees a doctor that has high blood pressure. These are people who do have access. They do see doctors. So that definitely is really a concern here.

KAGAN: All right. Well let's take the discussion to the next step, if in fact these hypertension patients are seeing doctors, what's the missing link here, and what are the doctors missing?

ROWLAND: Well, what they say is maybe not all doctors are following the current guidelines. For instance, you know if you have a reading of 160 over 90 that means you should get drugs. But when older people, that top number, it's called your systolic blood pressure, it should be 140.

So there are some cases of under-treatment, so they may not be following the guidelines, but then a finger has to be pointed at the patients.

KAGAN: Which means perhaps they are getting the right advice and treatment but they're not following through because, and we've all had this happen, the doctor tells you this is what you've got to do. It usually involves some kind of exercise and affecting your diet. People don't want to hear it, and more importantly people don't want to follow through.

ROWLAND: That's right, they don't want to take their drugs. In fact studies have shown that within one year after being prescribed high blood pressure medication only half of the patients are still taking them.

Also, when you're talking about older people, they may have multiple drugs they need to take, so they may have difficult time keeping track of them, they may have too many side effects. Then cost, if you have a lot of drugs you have to take, it's a problem.

But again, we just have to stress the importance of taking these medications, because we know they reduces the risk of heart attack and stroke, the number one killers in our country.

KAGAN: Rhonda Rowland, thanks for the warning. Appreciate it.

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