Patient factors associated with documented provision of JNC 7-recommended hypertension care at an academic family medicine office.

BACKGROUND: Little is known about patient factors associated with the provision of hypertension care as recommended by JNC 7.
METHODS: We conducted a retrospective chart review (n = 150) to compare documented provision of items recommended by JNC 7 with various patient factors, using a 15-point scoring tool (0% to 100%).
RESULTS: The overall documentation of JNC guideline-recommended care was 78.3%. There was a significant effect of marital status; married patients received more guideline-recommended care than unmarried patients (80.4% vs 74.4%; P = .02). Men received more guideline-recommended care than women (80.7% vs 76.4%; P = .02). Multivariate analysis revealed that Medicaid patients had 7.1% lower rates of guideline-recommended care than patients with other insurance (P = .05). There was no significant difference in guideline-recommended care based on race/ethnicity; however, racial/ethnic disparities were identified for certain individual standards.
CONCLUSIONS: Hypertension care in 2013 at an academic family medicine center was, for the most part, in agreement with guidelines; however, provision of some items varied based on sex, marital status, and insurance. Awareness of these predictors may help improve the implementation of guidelines, particularly relevant given the recent release of JNC 8. © Copyright 2015 by the American Board of Family Medicine.