Abstract TH127: Detecting Potential Threshold Bias in Recorded Blood Pressure in Clinical Practice and Research: A study of 7 International Datasets

Introduction: Threshold bias, a tendency to record blood pressure (BP) measurements at values below the threshold for BP control in adults with hypertension, may be an underrecognized issue in clinical practice and research and could result in undertreatment of hypertension. Aim: To develop a method for detecting potential threshold bias using population-based surveillance data as a reference and apply it to research cohort, clinical practice, and clinical trial datasets. Hypothesis: Threshold bias may be present in settings with a BP control goal (e.g., hypertension programs and some clinical trials), but not in those without (e.g., research cohorts). Methods: In national surveillance datasets (i.e., reference datasets) from the US and Bangladesh, we examined the systolic blood pressure (SBP) distributions in adults…