Hypertension patients participating in trials differ in many aspects from patients treated in general practices.
OBJECTIVE
To determine to what extent participants in randomized controlled hypertension trials (RCTs) could be compared to patients with hypertension in general practices.


METHODS
We analyzed RCTs that had been used in hypertension guidelines or were available for future hypertension guidelines. The characteristics of the participants of these RCTs were compared with those of the patients with hypertension in general practices. In addition, inclusion and exclusion criteria of the RCTs were applied to the hypertension patients in the general practices.


RESULTS
Twenty-one trials were analyzed. Participants' characteristics often differed from those of the patients with hypertension in general practices, in particular in the older trials where the participants showed lower cardiovascular risk. More recent trials showed participants' profiles that better reflected those of the patients under treatment in a general practice. Less than half of the patients undergoing treatment in a general practice would have been included in the hypertension trials.


CONCLUSIONS
Participants taking part in trials differed from patients with hypertension in a general practice in a number of important aspects. This hampers their external validity. Inclusion of participants with comorbidity and other general practice characteristics would improve translation of study findings to daily practice recommendations.
Uijen
Annemarie A
AA
University Medical Centre Nijmegen, Department of General Practice (117), PO Box 9101, 6500 HB, Nijmegen, The Netherlands. A.Uijen@hag.umcn.nl
Bakx
J Carel
JC
Mokkink
Henk G A
HG
van Weel
Chris
C
D017677:Age Distribution; D000368:Aged; D001794:Blood Pressure; D005194:Family Practice; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000628:therapy*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D018579:Patient Selection; D016032:Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic; D012307:Risk Factors; D017678:Sex Distribution