How prevalence of hypertension varies as diagnostic criteria change. Academic Article uri icon

Overview

abstract

  • In a effort to determine what impact diagnostic criteria might have in defining the magnitude of the "hypertensive" population, various definitions of high blood pressure were applied to the same population. At the initial encounter, 23.3 per cent of the subjects had blood pressures greater than or equal to 160/95 mm Hg, but less than half of these sustained that level on two subsequent occasions over the next three weeks. When an initial diastolic blood pressure of greater than or equal to 105 mm Hg was used to define hypertension, prevalence fell by more than two thirds (23.3 to 7.2 per cent). These results clearly demonstrate that even a very simple modification of diagnostic criteria can markedly alter the prevalence of "hypertension."

publication date

  • January 1, 1976

Research

keywords

  • Hypertension

Identity

Scopus Document Identifier

  • 0017081882

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

  • 10.1097/00000441-197605000-00010

PubMed ID

  • 937381

Additional Document Info

volume

  • 271

issue

  • 3