Why the study?
Noncommunicable diseases impede development, yet evidence on screening in low-resource settings is scarce.
Does hypertension screening and referral improve blood pressure control in a low-resource setting?
Does hypertension screening and referral improve blood pressure control in a low-resource setting?
Hypertension screening in low-resource settings may be more effective and cost-effective if strategies are implemented to minimize false positive screens.
Screening referrals should not yet alter practice in low-resource settings; leaves open optimal strategies for sustained BP control.
Noncommunicable diseases impede development, yet evidence on screening in low-resource settings is scarce. We evaluate hypertension screening in rural South Africa using a multidimensional regression discontinuity: a survey measures blood pressure (BP) and refers individuals exceeding either of two thresholds. Overall, referral modestly raises treatment uptake but shows no average BP effect after 4 years. We use BP variation with time of day and temperature to identify screens that are less likely to produce false positives. For these, referrals lower systolic BP by 5 mm Hg and uncontrolled BP by 22 percentage points. Limiting false positives may increase referral impact and program cost-effectiveness.
No takes yet. Share an insight, caveat, or question.
Kämpfen et al. (2025) studied this question.
Synapse has enriched 5 closely related papers on similar clinical questions. Consider them for comparative context: