In 2019, the Japanese Society of Hypertension guidelines for the management of hypertension (JSH) were revised. We previously reported the awareness of JSH among general practitioners in 2014, and in the current study, the same questionnaire was administered to determine their awareness of JSH 2019, and their responses were compared. We also sought to identify effective strategies to raise awareness of hypertension. The questionnaires included the same 12 questions as in 2014 and were mailed to members of two professional organizations from October to November 2019. Responses from 256 general practitioners in 2019 and 209 in 2014 were compared using the propensity score matching method to align the responders’ backgrounds. Component analysis was performed to classify responders into appropriate clusters. The matched cohort of all 202 responders was analyzed. In both 2014 and 2019, >80% of responders instructed patients to perform home blood pressure monitoring (JSH 2014: 81.7% and JSH 2019: 84.6% in the matched cohort), and >70% instructed patients with hypertension to restrict their salt intake (JSH 2014: 79.7% and JSH 2019: 74.7% in the matched cohort). Regarding the clinical blood pressure measurement method, more responders answered “one time outside the consulting room” in the JSH 2019 group (p = 0.042). Fewer general practitioners responded that differential diagnosis for primary aldosteronism was performed in the JSH 2019 group (p = 0.032); however, the frequency of checking the aldosterone-renin ratio increased in the JSH 2019 group (p = 0.055). We confirmed the change in general practitioners’ awareness of hypertension management. The categorized clusters may be useful for the development of effective strategies for higher-quality hypertension management in clinical practice.

2019年，日本高血压学会高血压管理指南（JSH）进行了修订。我们之前在 2014 年报告了全科医生对 JSH 的认识，在当前的研究中，我们使用了相同的问卷来确定他们对 JSH 2019 的认识，并比较了他们的回答。我们还试图确定有效的策略来提高对高血压的认识。问卷包括与 2014 年相同的 12 个问题，并于 2019 年 10 月至 2019 年 11 月邮寄给两个专业组织的成员。使用倾向得分匹配方法比较了 2019 年 256 名全科医生和 2014 年 209 名全科医生的回答，以调整回答者的背景. 进行成分分析以将响应者分类为适当的集群。分析了所有 202 名响应者的匹配队列。在 2014 年和 2019 年，>80% 的响应者指示患者进行家庭血压监测（JSH 2014：81.7% 和 JSH 2019：84.6% 在匹配队列中），>70% 指示高血压患者限制盐摄入量（JSH 2014：79.7% 和 JSH 2019：匹配队列中的 74.7%）。关于临床血压测量方法，在 JSH 2019 组中，更多响应者回答“诊室外一次”（p  = 0.042）。更少的全科医生回应说，JSH 2019 组对原发性醛固酮增多症进行了鉴别诊断（p  = 0.032）；然而，在 JSH 2019 组中，检查醛固酮-肾素比率的频率有所增加（p  = 0.055）。我们证实了全科医生对高血压管理意识的变化。分类的集群可能有助于在临床实践中制定有效的高质量高血压管理策略。