Identification and Treatment of Arterial Hypertension in General Practice

1. A screening programme has been set up in a group general practice for identifying and treating moderate high blood pressure in men and women aged 45–54 years, and at the same time the identification and treatment of high blood pressure in patients in reference general practices has been monitored.

2. The special measures resulted in a response rate of 68·8%. In the reference practices, 14·9% of patients attending during the study had their blood pressure reading recorded on the monitoring form.

3. The overall prevalence of diastolic blood pressure (phase 4) ≥105 mmHg in the special hypertension programme is 3·8 times that observed in the reference practices.