Hypertension: diagnosis, assessment and management

Hypertension is a serious and common condition, the prevalence of which is set to rise given the increase in the ageing population, sedentary lifestyles and obesity. This article reviews the management of primary hypertension in adults, with reference to the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidelines. Diagnosis using clinic, ambulatory and home blood pressure (BP) monitoring, risk factors, BP targets, lifestyle advice, drug treatment and patient education are also discussed.

Review

All articles are subject to external double-blind peer review and checked for plagiarism using automated software.

Online

Guidelines on writing for publication are available at www.nursing-standard.co.uk. For related articles visit the archive and search using the keywords above.

NS748 Bunker J (2014) Hypertension: diagnosis, assessment and management.

Nursing Standard. 28, 42, 50-59. Date of submission: December 16 2013; date of acceptance: March 27 2014.