Proposed Changes to Hypertension Recommendations May Help to Avoid Unnecessary Prescriptions

GATINEAU, QUEBEC--(Marketwired - Oct. 18, 2014) - A working group has convened in Gatineau to review the latest research and recommend changes to Hypertension Canada's CHEP recommendations for the prevention and treatment of hypertension. Changes are proposed to blood pressure measurement, the key to diagnosing hypertension. "This is great news for both healthcare professionals and the 7.5 million Canadians living with hypertension," says Dr. Doreen Rabi, Chair of the CHEP Central Review Committee. "The proposal will help to better separate those who would benefit from medication from those who can get by with healthy lifestyle changes alone."

Currently, the CHEP recommendations encourage health professionals and patients to measure blood pressure in a clinical setting. Thanks to advances in technology, the evidence shows that patients now have a number of new options that are both more accurate and more convenient.

Preferred new technologies include electronic home blood pressure monitors and wearable ambulatory monitors that take frequent readings as patients go about their daily lives. Measuring blood pressure in a home or an ambulatory setting can help to weed out "white coat hypertension", a common phenomenon wherein patients exhibit high blood pressure only in a clinical setting. This may help to improve diagnosis and avoid costly, unnecessary prescriptions for patients, insurers and governments.

"Hypertension Canada is grateful for our CHEP volunteers' time and expertise, as well as their unwavering commitment to evidence and the integrity of the CHEP process," says Ernesto Schiffrin, President.

About Hypertension

High blood pressure, also called hypertension, affects more than seven million Canadians and is the leading cause of death and disability around the world. Although hypertension is highly preventable and treatable, one in three people living with hypertension have uncontrolled blood pressure and nearly one in five are not even aware of their condition.

About Hypertension Canada:

Hypertension Canada is the only national charity dedicated solely to the prevention and control of hypertension and its complications, serving the nation's health care professionals in hypertension prevention, control, research, education and advocacy. Our mission is to advance health through the prevention and control of high blood pressure and its complications. Our vision is that Canadians will have the healthiest and best managed blood pressure in the world.