An epidemiological approach to describing risk associated with blood pressure levels. Final report of the Working Group on Risk and High Blood Pressure.

Final Report of the Working Group onRisk and High Blood Pressure I N view of several recent major studies of the effi- cacy of treatment of high blood pressure, in which treatment was initiated at specific blood pressure levels, in 1981, the National High Blood Pressure Education Program Coordinating Committee appointed a Working Group to revise the approach to describing morbidity and mortality associated with levels of blood pressure.The specific charge to the group was to examine the epidemiological evidence concerning risk related to blood pressure as well as data from clinical trials.This report identifies the relative risks associated with specified levels of blood pressure and provides an estimate of those who are at increased risk by blood pressure level, an important public health issue in the United States.The Working Group's report is intended for use as a reference document to assist in the classification of those at risk by providing the necessary data base for screening and referral programs.The report is also intended to serve as a reference document for further epidemiological research.For guidance on the identification of specific blood pressure categories for purposes of therapeutic intervention, the reader is referred to the 1984 Report of the Joint National Committee on Detection, Evaluation, and Treatment of High Blood Pressure,^ which directly addresses practical clinical issues concerning the wide-scale detection, evaluation, and treatment of hypertension.Approaches to definition have evolved with advances in understanding of both blood pressure-related risks and the efficacy of antihypertensive therapy.Accordingly, the Working Group first reviewed the conventional definitions and then formulated a unified approach to modifying those definitions that would take into account both risks and efficacy of treatment and providing for at least two occasions of measurement rather than one.This approach entailed review-From the Working Group on Risk and High Blood Pressure appointed by the