Treatment of hypertension in central and eastern European countries: self-reported practice of primary care physicians
Abstract
To describe self-reported hypertension treatment among primary care physicians in central and eastern Europe and to investigate international differences. A cross-sectional survey of primary care physicians with a questionnaire translated into various languages was carried out in nine central and eastern European countries.
Three thousand physicians were randomly selected from the national registers. In hypertension treatment, some decisions made by primary care physicians from central and eastern European countries are still done without any supporting evidence from clinical trials.
They have declared lower treatment goals and the initiation of pharmacotherapy at lower BP levels than recommended in international guidelines. An innovative approach to continuous medical education should be introduced and the efforts to implement guidelines in everyday practice ought to continue.