Clinical practice and recent recommendations in XXXX management--reporting a gap in a global survey of 1259 primary care physicians in 17 countries.

@entity1 @entity101 @entity65
OBJECTIVE: High blood pressure (BP) is a leading risk factor for @entity65 and mortality. Effective antihypertensive pharmacotherapy is available but recognition and proper management of @entity101 and BP goal achievement is still poor. Therefore, it was hypothesized that physicians' attitude towards high BP, as well as @entity1 ' perception and knowledge, may influence actual management of @entity101 . RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: Telephone interviews were carried out with a random sample of 1259 primary care physicians in 17 countries worldwide from 12 December 2005 to 13 January 2006 using a central computer assisted telephone interview methodology (CATI). RESULTS: (1) Physicians believed that 62 +/- 21% of their @entity1 had their BP controlled. (2) They were mostly in line with guideline recommended BP goals and 96% were aware of the elevated cardiovascular risk of @entity101 , but 41% aimed to reduce BP to acceptable levels only. (3) Physicians indicated that in 41% of @entity1 monotherapy controls BP and 71% would escalate to combination therapy after monotherapy failure. (4) 54% regard @entity101 management as difficult. (5) Physicians estimated that between 60 and 70% of @entity1 know their BP goal but thought that there was still room for improvement of @entity101 management on the @entity1 side. CONCLUSION: Although many effective treatment options for arterial @entity101 exist, BP goal achievement worldwide is suboptimal, leaving @entity1 at an unnecessary cardiovascular risk. An increase in @entity1 ' awareness and compliance together with an increased adherence of physicians to current guidelines should help in reducing the long term cardiovascular consequences of @entity101 .
