OBJECTIVES: Lack of adherence is a major determinant of inadequate control of cardiovascular risk factors. The aim of this study is to evaluate the level of therapeutic compliance among patients with mild to moderate hypertension (HT) and/or dislipidemia (DL), in a primary care setting in daily medical practice, and to determine factors associated with TC. METHODS: A retrospective multicentric study was performed from a one-year (2005) registry of patients from five primary care centres in Spain. Inclusion criteria were as follows: mild to moderate HT as per JNC-VII, British Hipertensión-Society; and DL as per NCEP-ATP III. Compliance was estimated by the relationship between the amount of dispensed and prescribed pills. Demographic variables, comorbidities, clinical parameters and sanitary resources were registered. A bivariant analysis and a multiple lineal regression analysis were done to correct the model. RESULTS: Compliance was estimated from the total sample of 15,606 patients (HT: 41.7%; DL: 23.1%; HT/DL: 35.2%), in 85.9% (CI=85.4-86.4%), 81.6% (CI=81.0-82.2%) and 84.9% (CI=84.3-85.5%) respectively (p=0.000; Scheffé). Explanatory variables of a better compliance in the multivariate analysis were (beta=0.832; t=59.1; p=0.000): a) direct relationship: age, labour inactivity, drug price, and b) indirect relationship: glycemia, triglycerides, LDL and number of active principles used (p=0.000). CONCLUSION: Dyslipidemic patients show a worse compliance than hypertensive patients, and dyslipidemia worsened global compliance in hypertensive patients. Certain clinical parameters of control, the age of the patient and the drug group are related to compliance in daily medical practice.