General practitioners maintain a focus on blood pressure management rather than absolute cardiovascular disease risk management

Background: Absolute cardiovascular disease (aCVD) risk assessment is recommended in CVD prevention guidelines. Yet, General Practitioners (GPs) often focus on single risk factors, including blood pressure (BP). Pathology services may be suitable to undertake high-quality automated unobserved BP (AOBP) measurement and aCVD risk assessment. This study explored GP attitudes towards AOBP measurement via pathology services and the role of BP in aCVD risk management. 

Methods: A brief survey was completed, after which a focus group (n = 8 GPs) and interviews (n = 10 GPs) explored attitudes to AOBP and aCVD risk via pathology services with an example pathology report discussed. Verbatim transcripts were thematically coded. 

Results: GPs predominantly used doctor-measured BP despite low levels of confidence. High BP measured by AOBP reported with aCVD risk via pathology services, would prompt a follow-up response. However, GPs focused on BP management. GPs were concerned about AOBP equivalency to routine BP measurements. After protocol explanation, GPs reported AOBP could value-add to care delivery. 

Conclusion: GPs lacked familiarity of AOBP and maintained a focus on BP management in the context of absolute CVD risk. Targeted education on AOBP and BP management as part of absolute CVD risk is needed to support guideline-directed care in practice.