Table 4 Key question 2 eligibility criteria (In adults without a prior diagnosis of hypertension, how accurately do different blood pressure measurement methods predict CVD morbidity, CVD mortality, and all-cause mortality?)

Population

Adults aged 18 years or older without established or documented hypertension or CVD

A staged approach will be used to potentially consider indirect evidence for our population. We will consider populations of adults on antihypertensive medication or with documented hypertension, if we fail to find evidence on adults without documented hypertension or CVD

Pregnant women, children (age < 18 years), inpatients, persons in institutions, patients with secondary hypertension, and highly selected groups of patients (e.g., those with chronic kidney disease or renal transplant) who do not represent a primary screening population

Interventions

Blood pressure measured using any clinic-based noninvasive brachial measurement including manual OBPM and attended or unattended automated OBPM. Home or ambulatory blood pressure measurement with any measurement protocol

Non-brachial measures (e.g., blood pressure measurement with wrist and finger monitors, forearm cuffs, or ankle and toe measures), instruments requiring specialist expertise, personal wearable smartphone “apps”/devices, or similar

Comparator

Blood pressure measured using any other noninvasive brachial clinic-based, home, or ambulatory blood pressure measurement (with any measurement protocol)

Non-brachial measures (e.g., blood pressure measurement with wrist and finger monitors, forearm cuffs, or ankle and toe measures), instruments requiring specialist expertise, personal wearable smartphone “apps”/devices, or similar

Outcomes

Measures of association (e.g., risk ratios, hazard ratios) between BP levels measured at baseline using eligible measurement methods:

1. All-cause mortality

2. CVD-related mortality

3. Macrovascular CVD events (e.g., stroke, myocardial infarction)

4. Microvascular CVD complications (e.g., renal disease, retinal disease)

N/A

Study design

Eligible studies include comparative studies that follow a cohort of subjects over time and report the association of different BP measurement methods at baseline with outcomes of interest over follow-up

Eligible designs include RCTs, prospective or retrospective cohort studies, nested case–control studies, within-arm analyses of intervention studies

Non-nested case–control studies, before-after studies, time series, case series, simulation studies, editorials, commentaries

Language

English and French

Any other language

Setting

Primary care and community-based settings (e.g., pharmacy)

No country-based restrictions

Inpatient or medical specialist settings (e.g., hospital, ICU, specialist’s office)

Publication date

No limitation

N/A

Study quality

No restrictions

N/A