Evidence for the Reaffirmation of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force Recommendation on Screening for High Blood Pressure: Evidence Synthesis, Number 56

摘要

In 2006, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) decided to reexamine the evidence in order to reaffirm its 2003 recommendation on screening for high blood pressure (or hypertension). The Task Force issues a reaffirmation update for a topic that the USPSTF decides to keep current because the topic is one of its priorities, is within its scope, and is a topic for which there is a compelling reason to make a recommendation. Topics in this category are well-established evidence-based standards of current medical practice. The USPSTF decided to perform a reaffirmation update because the evidence base on hypertension is strong and only large, high-quality studies would overturn such a recommendation. Such recommendations would previously have been an A or D recommendation. Therefore, we performed a literature search for new, substantial evidence that would be sufficient to change the 2003 recommendation.