27 Oct THE NATION reports on AIGHD's hypertension project in Lagos

Posted at 14:01h in News by

Nigeria’s national paper, THE NATION, reported today on AIGHD’s “OMRON Connect Project & Evaluation Study“.

Experts in public health have demonstrated that pharmacy-based treatment of hypertension is possible. The Centre for Epidemiology and Health Development (CEHD), Lagos in collaboration with the Amsterdam Institute for Global Health and Development, and Omron Healthcare (OMC) have proved this.

A one-day conference was held in Lagos, where findings from the study on the feasibility of pharmacy-based treatment of hypertension, carried out in urban Lagos, were presented. The research became necessary because of the need to find ways of improving access to diagnosis and treatment of hypertension.

According to the conference convener, Prof Akin Osibogun of CEHD, who is also a consultant epidemiologist  at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), hypertension, is prevalent among Nigerians from 18 years and above. “Unfortunately, several studies from Nigeria have also documented a high percentage of people with elevated blood pressure not being aware of their status. Furthermore, a large percentage of those who are aware of their hypertensive status are not following a consistent treatment plan due to challenges in access to treatment,” he explained.

Dr. Van’t Hoog also introduced the Evaluation Study, which was conducted by an independent team of researchers from AIGHD and CEHD. “The aim of the study was to evaluate the feasibility of providing hypertension care through community-based pharmacies, including e-monitoring of patients, in an urban setting in Nigeria. The study followed patients in the pilot programme for six months, and employed both quantitative and qualitative research methods. The enrolled patients age, sex and hypertension treatment status at enrollment are available,” she added.

Ms. Heleen Nelissen of AIGHD said with results mostly obtained by quantitative analyses of the study data, indeed, adherence to prescriptions can alter hypertension.

Read the full article here: http://thenationonlineng.net/research-adherence-prescription-can-alter-hypertension/