Search And Appraisal Strategies For Hypertension And...

Search and Appraisal Strategies CINAHL, PubMed, Google scholar and Cochrane library were searched for the following terms: hypertension, diet, exercise, lifestyle, pharmacotherapy, yoga, DASH diet. The key words â€Å"hypertension and lifestyle interventions† were searched at the title and abstract level in PubMed, CINAHL, Cochrane and Google Scholar. Inclusion criteria consisted of peer-reviewed meta-analysis, systematic reviews, randomized control trials (RCT) or quasi experimental studies focused on life style modifications in the reduction of systolic blood pressure, published between 2010 and 2015. The exclusion criteria included studies published prior to 2010 and also pediatric and perinatal studies. The search yielded a†¦show more content†¦The appraisal of all these 10 articles led to identification of the three primary themes: a) positive findings, b) mixed findings, and c) barriers associated with implementing life style modifications in the treatment o f hypertension. Positive Findings The literature published since 2010 indicates that the lifestyle modification can be used as an alternative to pharmacotherapy in the treatment of hypertension. Authors of the nine articles of ten articles utilized for this study has concluded that lifestyle changes, which mainly includes physical activity and dietary changes is very effective in the management of hypertension. Randomized Control Trials This study utilized 6 RCT‘s selected from various databases. The study conducted by (Hinderliter et al., 2013) concluded that changes in dietary habits, weight and blood pressure persist for 8 months after completion of the 16th week ENCORE program with some attenuation of the benefits. The ENCORE study was done with 144 overweight individuals with hypertension, randomized to 16 weeks intervention, which includes behavioral weight management and DASH diet and DASH diet alone. Follow up assessments were done after 8 months of the end of the treatment and the systolic blood pressure at the end of 16 weeks was found to be reduced by 16.1 (95% confidence interval CI = 13.0-19.2) mmhg with DASH-WM group, 11.2 (95% CI = 8.1-14.3) mmhg in the DASH-A group and 3.4 (95% CI = 0.4–6.4) mmhg in the