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Background: Poorly controlled hypertension is a great challenge to global public health. Incentive approaches, based on behavioral and economic concepts, may improve patients' adherence to treatment.Methods: We conducted a 2-arm randomized controlled trial to test whether financial incentives can help patients with poorly controlled hypertension in China reduce their blood pressure (BP). Participants were randomized 1:1 to the control and intervention groups. All participants received WeChat-based standard education and support for hypertension management. The intervention group received financial incentives, including process- and outcome-based incentives.Results: No statistically significant differences in BP reduction and hypertension control rates were found between the two groups from baseline to 12-month follow-up. Mean systolic BP decreased from 158.7 to 149.8 mm Hg in the intervention group and 159.7 to 149.5 mm Hg in the control group (P=0.639). Mean diastolic BP decreased from 93.7 to 86.6 mm Hg in the intervention group and 93.9 to 86.3 mm Hg in the control group (P=0.667). Hypertension control rates in the intervention and control groups were 20.8% and 15.8%, respectively (P=0.318). Medication adherence was 84.2% in the intervention group and 86.2% in the control group (P=0.705).Conclusions: Financial incentives were effective in the short term for BP control, but a sustained effect of incentive-based BP control was not identified beyond 3 months of intervention. Future studies that focus on identifying the appropriate amount and structure of financial incentives for BP control are warranted.Registration: URL: www.isrctn.org; Unique identifier: ISRCTN13467677. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Shock index (SI) has been reported to help us predict adverse prognosis in patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI) undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). However, the prognostic value of age SI and modified shock index (MSI) in AMI undergoing PCI is unknown. Moreover, the prognostic performance of admission age SI is not compared with SI, MSI, and the Global Registry of Acute Coronary Events (GRACE) risk score., Methods: One thousand eight hundred sixty-four AMI patients undergoing PCI were analyzed in a retrospective cohort study. Clinical endpoint was all-cause mortality. The predictive performance of new models was assessed by C-statistic, Hosmer-Lemeshow test, Nagelkerke-R, Brier scores, integrated discrimination improvement (IDI), and net reclassification improvement (NRI)., Results: Multivariate analysis showed that higher age SI and MSI were both associated with a higher rate of all-cause mortality [age SI: hazard ratios (HR) = 1.025, 95% CI = 1.010-1.040, P = 0.001; MSI: HR = 2.902, 95% CI = 1.180-7.137, P = 0.020]. The prognostic performance of admission age SI was similar to the GRACE systems for predicting all-cause mortality (C-statistic: z = 0.437, P = 0.662; IDI: -0.005, P = 0.474; NRI: -0.028, P = 0.257), but better than admission SI (C-statistic: z = 3.944, P < 0.001; IDI: 0.012, P = 0.016; NRI: 0.472, P < 0.001) and admission MSI (C-statistic: z = 3.214, P = 0.001; IDI: 0.011, P = 0.001; NRI: 0.561, P < 0.001)., Conclusions: Age SI alone can identify patients at high risk of death in AMI patients undergoing PCI. It is similar to GRACE but better than SI and MSI for predicting all-cause mortality. However, age SI is easier to calculate than GRACE.

The Eighth Joint National Committee (JNC-8) panel recently recommended a systolic blood pressure (BP) threshold of ≥ 150 mmHg for the initiation of drug therapy and a therapeutic target of <150/90 mmHg in patients ≥ 60 years of age. However, results from some post-hoc analysis of randomized controlled trials and observational studies did not support these recommendations. In the prospective cohort study, 5006 eligible hypertensive patients aged ≥ 60 years from rural areas of China were enrolled for the present analysis. The association between the average follow-up BP and outcomes (all-cause and cardiovascular death, incident coronary heart disease [CHD], and stroke), followed by a median of 4.8 years, were evaluated using Cox proportional hazards models adjusting for other potential confounders. The relationship between BP (systolic or diastolic) showed an increased or J-shaped curve association with adverse outcomes. Compared with the reference group of BP <140/90 mmHg, the risk of all-cause death (hazard ratio [HR]: 2.698; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.989-3.659), cardiovascular death (HR: 2.702; 95% CI: 1.855-3.935), incident CHD (HR: 3.263; 95% CI: 2.063-5.161), and stroke (HR: 2.334; 95% CI: 1.559-3.945) was still significantly increased in the group with BP of 140-149/<90 mmHg. Older hypertensive patients with BP of 140-149/<90 mmHg were at higher risk of developing adverse outcomes, implying that lenient BP control of 140-149/<90 mmHg, based on the JNC-8 guidelines, may not be appropriate for hypertensive patients aged ≥ 60 years in rural areas of China.