STARLIGHT, Version 1.0
Research type
Research Study
Full title
STandardising pAthways for diagnosing hypeRtension using routine healLthcare data: an InvestiGation of the Health and economic ouTcomes
IRAS ID
308385
Contact name
Laura Armitage
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Oxford
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 11 months, 30 days
Research summary
This study investigates whether a system for identifying undiagnosed high blood pressure among hospital patients can improve patient health and NHS spending.
When blood flows at high pressure around the body, this is known as hypertension. Hypertension can cause damage to the body’s major organs, including strokes, heart attacks and kidney failure. In England, 1 in 8 adults has undiagnosed hypertension. These people are at risk of these serious health problems.
More needs to be done in the NHS to identify people with hypertension, on top of existing checks for hypertension. Presently, the only dedicated system for checking people for hypertension is the ‘NHS Health Check’. This includes a blood pressure test and is offered to adults aged 40-74, once every 5 years. This misses people with hypertension because:
1. Only half of the people invited attend
2. Blood pressure varies throughout the day, meaning a person’s blood pressure can be normal at the health check but high at other times
3. It misses people who are younger than 40 and older than 74.We need other ways to help identify people with undiagnosed hypertension. One way could be using blood pressure measurements taken routinely as part of assessments for other health conditions, including when people are admitted to hospital. However, using this sort of data to diagnose hypertension is not current practice, because we do not know:
1. How many additional people we could help diagnose using hospital blood pressure measurements
2. How many of these people would be diagnosed sooner than if we relied on them having a blood pressure check through another source, such as the NHS health check
3. How diagnosing these people sooner would help their overall health
4. How NHS spending would be affected by diagnosing these people with hypertension and treating them sooner.This study will answer these important questions.
REC name
London - South East Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
22/LO/0636
Date of REC Opinion
19 Sep 2022
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion