Daily timing of antihypertensives does not impact effectiveness

Antihypertensive medication effectiveness for protecting against heart attack, stroke, and vascular death is not affected by whether the medication is taken in the morning or evening, according to a late-breaking study presented at the European Society of Cardiology Congress 2022, held from Aug. 26 to 29 in Barcelona, Spain.

Thomas MacDonald, from the University of Dundee in the United Kingdom, and colleagues randomly assigned 21,104 patients with high blood pressure (1:1) to take their usual antihypertensive medication in the morning or the evening. Median follow-up was 5.2 years.

The researchers found that the composite primary end point of hospitalization for nonfatal myocardial infarction or nonfatal stroke or vascular death occurred in 3.4 percent of participants in the evening dosing group (0.69 events per 100 patient-years) and 3.7 percent of patients in the morning dosing group (0.72 events per 100 patient-years), yielding an unadjusted hazard ratio of 0.95 (95 percent confidence interval, 0.83 to 1.10; P = 0.53). Results were similar in prespecified subgroup analyses.

"People with high blood pressure should take their regular antihypertensive medications at a time of day that is convenient for them and minimizes any undesirable effects," MacDonald said in a statement.

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