Long-term effects of weight-reducing interventions in hypertensive patients: systematic review and meta-analysis.

5 Repeated evidence

How much this weighs: several studies in people, combined — the strongest kind of evidence there is.

Type of study: meta-analysis or systematic review
Studied in: people
Participants: not stated in the abstract
Published: 2008 in Archives of internal medicine
Cited: 49 times by other research
Who paid: Not declared. PubMed carries no conflict-of-interest statement for most articles; that is not the same as independent.
Source: PubMed 18362248 · doi 10.1001/archinte.168.6.571

The plain-language write-up of this study is still being written. Below is the abstract exactly as the researchers published it.

Abstract by the researchers — original text

Weight loss is recommended in all major guidelines for antihypertensive therapy. We searched for randomized controlled trials investigating the effects of weight-reducing diets, pharmacologic substances, and invasive interventions for weight reduction on patient-relevant end points and blood pressure (BP) in patients with essential hypertension. No information on the effects on patient-relevant end points was available. Patients assigned to weight loss diets, orlistat, or sibutramine reduced their body weight more effectively than did patients in the usual care/placebo groups. Reduction of BP was higher in patients treated with weight loss diets (systolic BP [SBP]: weighted mean difference [WMD], -6.3 mm Hg; diastolic BP [DBP]: WMD, -3.4 mm Hg) or orlistat (SBP: WMD, -2.5 mm Hg; DBP: WMD, -2.0 mm Hg). Systolic BP increased with sibutramine treatment (WMD, 3.2 mm Hg). In patients with essential hypertension, therapy with a weight loss diet or orlistat resulted in reductions in body weight and BP. Although sibutramine treatment reduced body weight, it did not lower BP.