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Hypertension control: population surveys vs clinical studies

Journal of Human Hypertension volume 29, pages 651–652 (2015)Cite this article

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High blood pressure (BP) poses a serious cardiovascular risk to the individual and a big burden to the population, being highly prevalent and accounting for 7.6 million premature deaths and 7% of disability-adjusted life years worldwide.1, 2, 3 However, although hypertension is easily detectable and can be controlled with appropriate treatment,4 the degree of BP control remains poor in most populations and settings.5, 6, 7

Information on the magnitude and management of hypertension is periodically collected, but the discrepancies in results among studies, even within the same country, are not uncommon and may be partly due to the use of different definitions, settings and procedures for BP measurement. To address this issue several strategies have been used, which include a common protocol of data collection with appropriate BP measurements and age standardization.2, 6, 7 Given that investigations can use different methods, what is then the best possible information on hypertension control? We think that appropriate comparison between studies require at least that: (i) BP measurement is accurate, including minimizing the office or white-coat effect,8, 9 and (ii) the results of clinic-based studies are considered separately from those of population-based surveys.

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Acknowledgements

This work has been partially funded by FIS grant PI13/02321 and Cátedra de la Universidad Autónoma de Madrid de Epidemiología y Control del Riesgo Cardiovascular, Madrid, Spain.

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  1. Department of Preventive Medicine and Public Health, School of Medicine, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid/IdiPAZ—CIBER in Epidemiology and Public Health (CIBERESP), Madrid, Spain

    J R Banegas & F Rodríguez-Artalejo

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  1. J R Banegas
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  2. F Rodríguez-Artalejo
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Correspondence to J R Banegas.

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Banegas, J., Rodríguez-Artalejo, F. Hypertension control: population surveys vs clinical studies. J Hum Hypertens 29, 651–652 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/jhh.2015.7

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