Temporal trends in antihypertensive drug prescriptions in Canada before and after introduction of the Canadian Hypertension Education Program

Poor control of hypertension is a world-wide health issue. In 1999, the Canadian Hypertension Education Program (CHEP) was launched to annually develop and implement evidence-based hypertension guidelines in an effort to improve hypertension control rates. This study was designed to examine temporal trends in antihypertensive drug prescribing and to explore whether drug prescriptions changed after initiation of the new CHEP guideline process.