ORIGINAL ARTICLES
Screening for hypertension in the emergency department
Emergency Department, Southampton General Hospital, Southampton, UK
Correspondence to:
Dr M Clancy, Emergency Department, Southampton General Hospital, Tremona Road, Southampton SO16 6YD, UK; Mike.Clancy{at}suht.swest.nhs.uk
Objective: A study was undertaken to answer the question: "For those ambulatory patients who attend the emergency department, does routinely measuring their blood pressure and providing written information about hypertension and advising them to see their general practitioner if indicated, compared with no measurement or advice, lead to subsequent interventions (drug therapy, life style advice) to control blood pressure?"
Method: A randomised controlled trial was performed in 400 patients attending the emergency department of Southampton General Hospital, a large UK teaching hospital serving a mainly urban population. Patients were randomised to the intervention and control groups.
Outcome measure: New drug treatment for hypertension at follow-up at 3 and 6 months.
Results: No new antihypertensive drug treatment was started for any of the participants (n = 377) in the trial.
Conclusion: Although screening was successfully completed, no differences were seen between the intervention and control groups. The high level of blood pressure screening within primary care became evident as the trial progressed. This, combined with the fact that the trial was limited to patients registered with a general practitioner, possible expectation bias in control subjects and poor compliance with follow-up instructions, may explain the result.
CiteULike 
Complore 
Connotea 
Del.icio.us 
Digg 
Reddit 
Technorati What's this?
Relevant Article
- Primary survey
- Geoff Hughes
Emerg. Med. J. 2008 25: 187.[Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]
eLetters:
Read all eLetters
- better recognition of hypertension is warranted even in subjects aged <35
- oscar,m jolobe
- EMJ Online, 10 Jul 2008 [Full text]
- Full Text
- Full Text (PDF)
- Submit a response
- Read responses to this article
- Alert me when this article is cited
- Alert me when eLetters are posted
- Alert me if a correction is posted
- Citation Map
Services
- Email this link to a friend
- Similar articles in this journal
- Similar articles in PubMed
- Add article to my folders
- Download to citation manager
- Request Permissions
Citing Articles
Google Scholar
PubMed
Topic Collections
Bookmark with
Register for free content
The full back archive is now available for all BMJ Journals. Institutional subscribers may access the entire archive as part of their subscription. Personal subscribers will also have access to all content when logged in. Non-subscribers who register have free access to all articles published before 2006 right back to volume 1 issue 1. Register here to access the free archive of all BMJ Journals.
Don't forget to sign up for content alerts so you keep up to date with all the articles as they are published.
