Addressing the Social Needs of Hypertensive Patients

Despite advances in treatments for cardiovascular risk factors, such as hypertension, poorly controlled blood pressure (BP) continues to be a significant public health problem in the United States. Medication nonadherence is a pervasive problem contributing to inadequate BP control. The patient–provider relationship offers an ideal opportunity to address patient nonadherence because providers’ communication skills contribute to as much as 50% of the quality of care patients’ receive. Many studies have shown that incorporating qualities of shared decision making, patient centeredness, adequate information exchange, and attending to patients’ general and disease-specific concerns in medical visits is associated with improvements in medication adherence among patients with hypertension. Indeed, 1 study has shown that the odds of nonadherence can be reduced by as much as 23% if the provider has good communication and clinical decision-making skills.