Introduction: Hypertension (persistent diastolic blood pressure of 90 mm Hg or greater and systolic blood pressure 140 mm Hg or greater) affects 20% of the world's adult population, and increases the risk of cardiovascular disease, end-stage renal disease, and retinopathy.
Methods and outcomes: We conducted a systematic review and aimed to answer the following clinical questions: What are the effects of different antihypertensive drugs for people with hypertension? What are the effects of dietary modification for people with hypertension? We searched: Medline, Embase, The Cochrane Library, and other important databases up to December 2007 (Clinical Evidence reviews are updated periodically, please check our website for the most up-to-date version of this review). We included harms alerts from relevant organisations such as the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA).
Results: We found 21 systematic reviews, RCTs, or observational studies that met our inclusion criteria. We performed a GRADE evaluation of the quality of evidence for interventions.
Conclusions: In this systematic review we present information relating to the effectiveness and safety of the following interventions: a low-salt diet, antihypertensive drugs, calcium supplements, fish oil supplements, magnesium supplements, and potassium supplements.