Generalizability of guidelines and physicians' adherence. Case study on the Sixth Joint National Commitee's guidelines on hypertension

Table 3 Generalizability of the individual trials to the hypertensive population.

	% of the pop. eligible* for trial	% of the eligible pop. that would be excluded**	% of the pop. to which the trial is generalizable
VA-NHBLI [36]	9.7	14.1	8.3
HDPF [37]	28.8	0	28.8
Oslo [45]	3.3	10.6	2.9
Australia [43]	18.1	5.7	17.1
MRC [40]	21.0	0	21.0
VA I [34]	0.4	0	0.4
VA II [35]	18.9	0	18.9
PHS [44]	18.5	9	16.9
HSCSG [33]	1.2	1.1	1.2
Barraclough [32]	11.0	0	11.0
Carter [38]	2.6	25	1.8
EWPHE [39]	37.4	22.3	32.8
Coope [42]	14.2	22.1	11.1
MRC – O [29]	14.8	9.7	13.2
SHEP [41]	22.0	26.5	16.2
STOP [30]	2.1	3.2	2.1

* Eligibility criteria shown in table 2. People with hypertension and controlled blood pressure was excluded from the analysis. ** Exclusion criteria shown in table 2.

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