Effects of labeling patients as prehypertensive

Background: labeling patients as hypertensive has some negative effects. the effects of being labeled as having prehypertension are unknown. we examined whether the label of prehypertension exerts a negative effect on patients' perceived health and whether it motivates people to adopt lifestyle recommendations to prevent hypertension. methods: we randomized 97 prehypertensive adults to either a labeling message or a generic (no label) message. at 3 months we assessed self-reports of change in perceived health and reported adoption of lifestyle recommendations to try to prevent hypertension. results: except for more participants with asthma in the label group,the 2 groups were similar at baseline. among the 70 participants who provided 3-month follow-up data,18 people (56%) in the nolabel group and 22 people (58%) in the label group reported their health as the same; 13 people (41%) in the no label group and 16 people (42%) in the label group reported health as better; and 1 person (in no label group) reported his health as worse. at 3 months there were no differences in reports of changing eating habits (risk ratio [rr],1.06; 95% ci,0.86 -1.31),cutting down on salt (rr,0.99; 95% ci,0.84 -1.15),reducing alcohol intake (rr,1.23; 95% ci,0.80 -1.90),or exercising (rr,1.17; 95% ci,0.91-1.51) to try to prevent hypertension. conclusion: being labeled as prehypertensive seems to exert neither harmful nor helpful effects.