To Örebro University

Purpose: To explore hypertension management in primary healthcare (PHC).

Design: Structured interviews of randomly selected PHC centres (PHCCs) from December 2019 to January 2021.

Setting: Seventy-six PHCCs in eight regions of Sweden.

Main outcome measures: Staffing and organization of hypertension care. Methods of measuring blood pressure (BP), laboratory tests, registration of co-morbidities and lifestyle advice at diagnosis and follow-up.

Results: The management of hypertension varied among PHCCs. At diagnosis, most PHCCs (75%) used the sitting position at measurements, and only 13% routinely measured standing BP. One in three (33%) PHCCs never used home BP measurements and 25% only used manual measurements. The frequencies of laboratory analyses at diagnosis were similar in the PHCCs. At follow-up, fewer analyses were performed and the tests of lipids and microalbuminuria decreased from 95% to 45% (p < 0.001) and 61% to 43% (p = 0.001), respectively. Only one out of 76 PHCCs did not measure kidney function at routine follow-ups. Lifestyle, physical activity, food habits, smoking and alcohol use were assessed in ≥96% of patients at diagnosis. At follow-up, however, there were fewer assessments. Half of the PHCCs reported dedicated teams for hypertension, 82% of which were managed by nurses. There was a great inequality in the number of patients per tenured GP in the PHCCs (median 2500; range 1300-11300) patients.

Conclusions: The management of hypertension varies in many respects between PHCCs in Sweden. This might lead to inequity in the care of patients with hypertension.

KEY POINTS: Hypertension is mainly handled in primary healthcare (PHC), and this study shows important dissimilarities in organization and clinical management. Several variants in techniques and measurements of blood pressure were found between PHC centres. Lifestyle, clinical and laboratory assessments decreased at follow-ups compared to at diagnosis, specifically for lipids, microalbuminuria and electrocardiograms. Nearly half of the PHC centres reported that they had dedicated hypertension teams.