Semipersonalized psychological evaluation of quality of life of hypertensive patients in a trial with two calcium antagonists: a multicenter Latinamerican study (Lastlhy)

ABSTRACT

The main objective of this study was to evaluate well being and physical activity of two hundred and forty eight hypertensive patients, of which, one hundred and seventy seven were female, who had previously finished the Latin American Study on Lacidipine in Hypertension (LASTLHY). This was an open study carried out in twelve clinical centers situated in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico and Venezuela, to compare, over a period of sixteen weeks, the antihypertensive actions of fixed-dose once daily oral monopharmacotherapy of 4 rng of lacidipine (n=120) patients VS. 30 mg of nifedipine (n=128) patients aged between 40-65 years old, with mild to moderate hypertension beginning at the end of a four weeks placebo run-in (end of week-1). Well being and physical activity were assessed through an experimental single questionnaire, which was administered taking into consideration the physical and cultural diversities amongst the clinical centers and patients. The questionnaire included thirteen multiple-choice and eight contingent open questions. The score to each question was multiplied by a coefficient according to the importance of each question for each patient (semipersonal ization); the coefficient was evaluated from cultural and socioeconomic information collected at the time of enrollment. The semipersonalization was carried out by a blind psychological study with respect to the medication and had a high repeatability in the assignment of personalized coefficients to the score of each question. The scores of each question were added to obtain an overall weil being and activity scoring. The possible theoretical range for the overall scoring in this study was 10-124