2022, Supplement 3
Cardiovasc Metab Sci 2022; 33 (S3)
Implementation and barriers of high blood pressure guidelines and standards
Guerra-López, Arturo
ABSTRACT
The rapid evolution in medical knowledge, as well as the introduction of Evidence-Based Medicine, have highlighted a need for documents which facilitate acquiring the best information for the benefit of the patient. This has led to the development of medical guidelines in practically all specialties. In the case of high blood pressure (HBP) there are several guidelines developed by diverse Cardiology Societies throughout the world, each of them with different definitions for "normal" values for blood pressure, as well as differences in both management and treatment strategies. Furthermore, guidelines are updated periodically, which increases complexity for the physician to keep up to date. Amongst the barriers which limit physician adherence to the guidelines, are the lack of interest, inadequate medical preparation, excess of information, reliability, or preferences. Physician preference may favor guidelines developed within their country of practice or internationally; however, whichever the preference may be, evidence indicates that adherence to guidelines is generally low. In this review, we recapitulate the evidence on guideline adherence and its potential causes.