J Korean Acad Fam Med.  2006 Oct;27(10):789-797.

Pattern of Hypertensive Management and Usefulness of Treatment Guideline in Primary Care

Affiliations
  • 1Department of Family Medicine, School of Medicine, Konkuk University, Korea. fmkhj@korea.com
  • 2Department of Internal Medicine, College of Medicine, Dongguk University, Korea.
  • 3Department of Preventive Medicine, College of Medicine, Dongguk University, Korea.

Abstract

BACKGROUND: This study aimed at finding out how much the rate of the JNC-7 guideline was carried out, and assessed the degree of evidence based clinical practice patterns and the validity of the new guideline by comparatively analyzing primary care practice patterns in hypertensive patients.
METHODS
A questionnaire regarding the management of hypertension was conducted by mail between May 15 and July 15, 2005, to 1,008 of the Korean Association of Family Medicine listed in the address book. There were 195 respondents with a response rate of 19.4%.
RESULTS
Among the total respondents, 91.1% were aware of the new guideline and had received information mainly through training lectures and seminars. They said that the biggest difference between the new guideline from the previous one was the inclusion of prehypertension (62.3%), and 61.1% were using the new term prehypertension in their practice. The most frequency advice given to patients related to lifestyle modification were in the order of smoking cessation (44.8%), exercise (41.7%) and weight reduction (38.0%). Calcium channel blocker was the most commonly used (60.9%) as the first-line agent. When physicians failed to control blood pressure with the first medication in cases of stage 1 hypertension, 67.7% added other agents. In treating stage 2 hypertension, 59.9% started with a single agent and gradually added other agents.
CONCLUSIONS
Family physicians in primary care clinics had a good understanding of the JNC-7 guideline. However, the rate at which they applied it in treatment was low. To effectively apply the guideline in actual treatments, aggressive education of practitioners and improvement on medical system and treatment guidelines are needed.

Keyword

JNC-7; hypertension; practice patterns; guideline; prehypertension

MeSH Terms

Blood Pressure
Calcium Channels
Surveys and Questionnaires
Education
Humans
Hypertension
Lectures
Life Style
Physician's Practice Patterns
Physicians, Family
Postal Service
Prehypertension
Primary Health Care*
Smoking Cessation
Weight Loss
Calcium Channels
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