Skip to main content

Main menu

  • HOME
  • ONLINE FIRST
  • CURRENT ISSUE
  • ALL ISSUES
  • AUTHORS & REVIEWERS
  • SUBSCRIBE
  • BJGP LIFE
  • MORE
    • About BJGP
    • Conference
    • Advertising
    • eLetters
    • Alerts
    • Video
    • Audio
    • Librarian information
    • Resilience
    • COVID-19 Clinical Solutions
  • RCGP
    • BJGP for RCGP members
    • BJGP Open
    • RCGP eLearning
    • InnovAIT Journal
    • Jobs and careers

User menu

  • Subscriptions
  • Alerts
  • Log in

Search

  • Advanced search
British Journal of General Practice
Intended for Healthcare Professionals
  • RCGP
    • BJGP for RCGP members
    • BJGP Open
    • RCGP eLearning
    • InnovAIT Journal
    • Jobs and careers
  • Subscriptions
  • Alerts
  • Log in
  • Follow bjgp on Twitter
  • Visit bjgp on Facebook
  • Blog
  • Listen to BJGP podcast
  • Subscribe BJGP on YouTube
Intended for Healthcare Professionals
British Journal of General Practice

Advanced Search

  • HOME
  • ONLINE FIRST
  • CURRENT ISSUE
  • ALL ISSUES
  • AUTHORS & REVIEWERS
  • SUBSCRIBE
  • BJGP LIFE
  • MORE
    • About BJGP
    • Conference
    • Advertising
    • eLetters
    • Alerts
    • Video
    • Audio
    • Librarian information
    • Resilience
    • COVID-19 Clinical Solutions
Research Article

Same information, different decisions: the influence of evidence on the management of hypertension in the elderly.

M Cranney and T Walley
British Journal of General Practice 1996; 46 (412): 661-663.
M Cranney
University of Liverpool.
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
T Walley
University of Liverpool.
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • Article
  • Info
  • eLetters
  • PDF
Loading

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Evidence-based medicine requires general practitioners (GPs) to act upon the results of clinical trials. Clinical trial evidence may be difficult to understand and apply in practice. AIM: To investigate whether GPs were unduly influenced in managing hypertension in the elderly by the ways in which benefits of trial results were presented, and to establish whether their current treatment of an elderly hypertensive patient was broadly in line with recent clinical trial evidence. METHOD: Seventy-three GPs attending a refresher course were given a written questionnaire containing data from one clinical trial of treatment of hypertension in the elderly presented in four different ways (absolute risk reduction, relative risk reduction, difference in event-free patients, and number of patients who had to be treated in order to prevent one clinical event), as if from four different trials. The effect of each presentation on treatment preferences was assessed using Likert scales. The results were analysed to determine whether the method of presentation of results influenced decision making. A clinical scenario was presented to investigate their current treatment preferences in an elderly hypertensive. RESULTS: All GPs returned completed questionnaires. Relative risk reduction was the only presentation which was significantly different from the others, and was the most likely to influence prescribing. In free-text comments, 75% of GPs admitted having problems understanding statistics commonly found in medical journals. More than 90% conformed with recent clinical trial evidence for the management of hypertension. CONCLUSION: GPs were most influenced by relative risk reduction, and were unaware of how the presentation of research results could affect treatment decisions. Most GPs freely admitted to difficulty in comprehending medical statistics. Almost all of the GPs expressed treatment decisions which were broadly in line with clinical evidence.

Back to top
Previous ArticleNext Article

In this issue

British Journal of General Practice: 46 (412)
British Journal of General Practice
Vol. 46, Issue 412
November 1996
  • Table of Contents
  • Cover (PDF)
  • Index by author
  • Advertising (PDF)
Download PDF
Article Alerts
Or,
sign in or create an account with your email address
Email Article

Thank you for recommending British Journal of General Practice.

NOTE: We only request your email address so that the person to whom you are recommending the page knows that you wanted them to see it, and that it is not junk mail. We do not capture any email address.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
Same information, different decisions: the influence of evidence on the management of hypertension in the elderly.
(Your Name) has forwarded a page to you from British Journal of General Practice
(Your Name) thought you would like to see this page from British Journal of General Practice.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Citation Tools
Same information, different decisions: the influence of evidence on the management of hypertension in the elderly.
M Cranney, T Walley
British Journal of General Practice 1996; 46 (412): 661-663.

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero

Share
Same information, different decisions: the influence of evidence on the management of hypertension in the elderly.
M Cranney, T Walley
British Journal of General Practice 1996; 46 (412): 661-663.
del.icio.us logo Digg logo Reddit logo Twitter logo CiteULike logo Facebook logo Google logo Mendeley logo
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like
  • Google Plus One
  • Mendeley logo Mendeley

Jump to section

  • Top
  • Article
  • Info
  • eLetters
  • PDF

More in this TOC Section

  • Improving the ascertainment of families at high risk of colorectal cancer: a prospective GP register study.
  • Exploratory cluster randomised controlled trial of shared care development for long-term mental illness.
  • Integrated primary mental health care: threat or opportunity in the new NHS?
Show more Research Article

Related Articles

Cited By...

Intended for Healthcare Professionals

BJGP Life

BJGP Open

 

@BJGPjournal's Likes on Twitter

 
 

British Journal of General Practice

NAVIGATE

  • Home
  • Current Issue
  • All Issues
  • Online First
  • Authors & reviewers

RCGP

  • BJGP for RCGP members
  • BJGP Open
  • RCGP eLearning
  • InnovAiT Journal
  • Jobs and careers

MY ACCOUNT

  • RCGP members' login
  • Subscriber login
  • Activate subscription
  • Terms and conditions

NEWS AND UPDATES

  • About BJGP
  • Alerts
  • RSS feeds
  • Facebook
  • Twitter

AUTHORS & REVIEWERS

  • Submit an article
  • Writing for BJGP: research
  • Writing for BJGP: other sections
  • BJGP editorial process & policies
  • BJGP ethical guidelines
  • Peer review for BJGP

CUSTOMER SERVICES

  • Advertising
  • Contact subscription agent
  • Copyright
  • Librarian information

CONTRIBUTE

  • BJGP Life
  • eLetters
  • Feedback

CONTACT US

BJGP Journal Office
RCGP
30 Euston Square
London NW1 2FB
Tel: +44 (0)20 3188 7400
Email: journal@rcgp.org.uk

British Journal of General Practice is an editorially-independent publication of the Royal College of General Practitioners
© 2022 British Journal of General Practice

Print ISSN: 0960-1643
Online ISSN: 1478-5242