well as a potential organ protection are the key benefits
of the combination therapy[40].
Medication compliance
Compliance is defined as the extent to which a patient
takes medication as prescribed. Compliance rates are often
reported as percentage of prescribed dose of medication
taken over a period of time. Unfortunately, a large
proportion of the elderly patients discontinues or takes
the drugs inappropriately[112]. This noncompliance results
in failing to reach guideline-recommended BP targets.
Older age, low risk for cardiovascular events, competing
health problems, low socioeconomic status, complexity
(e.g., multiple dosing), side effects and cost of medication
regimen predict noncompliance[113].
CONCLUSION
Hypertension is an important risk factor for cardiovascular
morbidity and mortality, especially in the elderly.
Multiple trials have been shown that not only is it safe
to treat hypertension in the elderly, but also that will
decrease stroke, HF, myocardial infarction and all-cause
mortality. Hypertension treatment also reduces the incidence
of cognitive impairment and dementia in the
elderly. The adoption of a healthy lifestyle is one of the
cornerstones of hypertension management. Evidence indicates
that several classes of antihypertensive drugs are
effective in preventing cardiovascular events, but usually
no single drug is adequate to control BP in most elderly
with hypertension. Individualization of the treatment
should be guided by the presence of concomitant cardiovascular
risk factors. The assessment of subclinical cardiovascular
organ damage resulting to an earlier onset of
antihypertensive therapy leads to a reduction of the total
cardiovascular risk. For all those aforementioned reasons,
physicians should treat hypertension in their patients regardless
of their age.