Cost-Effectiveness of Recommendations From the Surgeon General's Call-to-Action to Control Hypertension

In response to high prevalence of hypertension and suboptimal rates of blood pressure (BP) control in the United States, the Surgeon General released a Call-to-Action to Control Hypertension (Call-to-Action) in the fall of 2020 to address the negative consequences of uncontrolled BP. In addition to morbidity and mortality associated with hypertension, hypertension has an annual cost to the US healthcare system of $71 billion. The Call-to-Action makes recommendations for improving BP control, and the purpose of this review was to summarize the literature on the cost-effectiveness of these strategies. We identified a number of studies that demonstrate the cost saving or cost-effectiveness of recommendations in the Call-to-Action including strategies to promote access to and availability of physical activity opportunities and healthy food options within communities, advance the use of standardized treatment approaches and guideline-recommended care, to promote the use of healthcare teams to manage hypertension, and to empower and equip patients to use self-measured BP monitoring and medication adherence strategies. While the current review identified numerous cost-effective methods to achieve the Surgeon General's recommendations for improving BP control, future work should determine the cost-effectiveness of the 2017 American College of Cardiology and American Heart Association Hypertension guidelines, interventions to lower therapeutic inertia, and optimal team-based care strategies, among other areas of research. Economic evaluation studies should also be prioritized to generate more comprehensive data on how to provide efficient and high value care to improve BP control.

Automated summary

The Surgeon General released a Call-to-Action in 2020 to address the high prevalence of hypertension and suboptimal rates of blood pressure control in the United States, which has an annual cost of $71 billion to the healthcare system. The review identified cost-effective strategies recommended in the Call-to-Action, such as promoting access to physical activity opportunities and healthy food options, standardized treatment approaches, and empowering patients for self-measured BP monitoring and medication adherence. Future research should focus on the cost-effectiveness of other guidelines and interventions to improve BP control.