Author Interviews, Blood Pressure - Hypertension, Cost of Health Care, NEJM / 29.01.2015
New Hypertension Guidelines Found To Be Cost-Effective
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Andrew Moran, MD, MPH
Herbert Irving Assistant Professor of Medicine
Columbia University Division of General Medicine
Presbyterian Hospital New York, NY 10032
Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: In 2014, a panel appointed by the Eighth Joint National Committee on the Detection, Evaluation and Treatment of High Blood Pressure (JNC 8) recommended new guidelines for high blood pressure (hypertension ) treatment in U.S. adults. The guidelines made sweeping changes to the prior guidelines and stirred up controversy among hypertension and public health experts. Essentially, the panel recommended more conservative treatment targets that narrowed the population eligible for treatment with blood pressure-lowering medications. Nonetheless, about 28 million U.S. adults have uncontrolled hypertension even under the new more conservative guidelines. We asked the question: are the new guidelines cost-effective? That is, does treating this common condition with the available medicines add more health and reduce medical costs? It is surprising that this question has rarely been answered before.
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