OPTiMISE
Research type
Research Study
Full title
OPtimising Treatment for MIld Systolic hypertension in the Elderly: a randomised controlled trial
IRAS ID
212465
Contact name
Richard McManus
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Oxford
Eudract number
2016-004236-38
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 4 months, 31 days
Research summary
Research Summary:
The population is getting older (over 3 million people in the UK are aged 80 years or older) and the number of people living with multiple illnesses, taking lots of tablets to manage these illnesses is increasing. High blood pressure is one of the most common medical conditions in older people and many take two or more drugs to treat it.
Recent scientific studies suggest that large reductions in blood pressure, and too many drug prescriptions may be associated with an increase in falls and death in older patients, particularly in those suffering from lots of medical conditions.
This study aims to assess the safety of reducing the number of drugs prescribed to older people (defined as being aged 80 years or older) who have blood pressure in a normal range and are taking two or more medications.Summary of Results:
Sometimes, older people take a lot of different medicines which can lead to harm from side effects. We did a trial to see if it's okay for some older people to stop taking one of their blood pressure medicines, compared to not stopping a medicine. We found that after three months, there was no difference between groups in how well their blood pressure was controlled. We then did a long-term follow-up of participants in the study, where we wanted to see if it was safe to continue not taking blood pressure medicines over a longer period of time.
To do this, we followed everyone in the trial for nearly four years and measured how many people went to hospital, or experienced strokes and heart attacks. Because everyone in the trial was over the age of 80 years, most people in both groups had some kind of health issue during follow-up, but there was no difference between the groups. About half of the people who stopped one medicine were still not taking it after three years. We think this study shows that for older people in the community, it is safe to stop one of their blood pressure medicines if they have low blood pressure.
REC name
South Central - Oxford A Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
16/SC/0628
Date of REC Opinion
12 Dec 2016
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion