Antihypertensive Medication Use Assessment

We obtained information on antihypertensive medication use from the questionnaire including the two parts. First, answered “yes” to “Are you now taking prescribed medication for high BP?” (13 ). Second, participants showed the container of prescription and non-prescription medications and supplements taken in the previous 30 days (15 ). The antihypertensive medication was classified using the Multum Lexicon 3-level nested category system, and all reported drug names were recorded as standard generic drugs. The fixed-dose combination (FDC) products were divided into individual generic ingredients (e.g., irbesartan/hydrochlorothiazide was classified into two separate compounds, “irbesartan” and “hydrochlorothiazide”). There are four classes of antihypertensive agents: ACEi/ARB, diuretics, beta-blockers (BB), and calcium channel blockers (CCB). In the current analysis, ACEi and ARB were classified into one group, and diuretics (thiazide, loop, and potassium-sparing) as one group.