Introduction:

in the year 2006 there were around 690 million people over 60 years old in the world. In developed countries, more than 20% of the population was elderly, as a result of an increase in life expectancy and declining birth rates.

Objective:

to characterize the therapeutic antihypertensive adherence in patients older than 60 years.

Method:

a cross-sectional descriptive study on antihypertensive therapeutic adherence in the elderly was carried out in the "Omar Ranedo Pubillones" polyclinic during 2007. Forty-three patients were chosen from a sample of 344.

Results:

the prescription of hypotensive drugs was adequate in 86.6% of the patients studied. The main prescription errors are due to lower therapeutic intervals, as well as higher than recommended doses. One third of patients had deficient knowledge about hypertension and 48.3% did not comply with the treatment indicated by the physician.

Conclusions:

in most of the patients included in the research there is an inadequate adherence to antihypertensive treatment, which will determine in the short, medium and long term an increase in morbidity and mortality due to cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, and its consequent social impact.

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