Top 20 POEMs of 2018

Hypertension

• Ambulatory Blood Pressure Important for Decision-Making About Treatment
  
• A Single Blood Pressure Measurement Is Often Falsely Elevated
  
• Second Blood Pressure Reading Drops 8 mm Hg from Initial High Reading
  
• Systolic Blood Pressure at Least 140 mm Hg Best Place to Begin Treatment
• Lower Systemic BP During Antihypertensive Treatment Associated with More Deaths in the Elderly

Infection

• Short Courses of Antibiotics As Effective As Longer Courses for Outpatient Infections
  
• Nothing Works for Cough Associated with the Common Cold
• Subacute Cough Treatments: Limited Data, Unclear Benefits
• Five-Day Nitrofurantoin Superior to Single-Dose Fosfomycin for Women with Uncomplicated UTI
• Increased Water Intake Decreases UTI Recurrence in Women

Pain Management

• Nonopiods Equivalent to Opioids for Severe Chronic Back, Hip, or Knee Pain with Fewer Adverse Outcomes
  
• Ibuprofen + Acetaminophen Equals Opioid + Acetaminophen for Acute Severe Extremity Pain
  
• Gabapentin and Pregabalin Not Effective for Low Back Pain with or Without Radiculopathy

Behavioral Medicine

• Physical Activity Associated with Reduced Incidence of Depression
  
• One Third of Patients with Anxiety Disorder Will Relapse When SSRI/SNRI Treatment Stops
• Nonbenzodiazepine Hypnotic Drugs Are Associated with Increased Fractures in Older Adults

Screening and Prevention

• FIT More Acceptable with Better Detection Rate Than gFOBT for Colorectal Cancer Screening
  
• Statins Ineffective for Primary Preventionin Patients 75 Years or Older Without Diabetes
• Aspirin's Benefits and Harms Are Less Clear for Primary Prevention in Moderate-Risk Patients (ARRIVE)
• Exercise Alone and Various Combinations of Interventions Reduces the Risk of Injurious Falls in Older Adults

Practice Guidelines

• Relaxed Homeglobin A1c Goals for T2DM from the American College of Physicians
  
• ACC/AHA Guidelines Take More Aggressive, Less Evidence-Based Approach to Hypertension Management

Levels of Evidence definitions from Essential Evidence Plus(www.essentialevidenceplus.com)

See related AFP article, "Top 20 Research Studies of 2018 for Primary Care Physicians."

POEMs are provided by Essential Evidence Plus, a point-of-care clinical decision support system published by Wiley-Blackwell. For more information, please see http://www.essentialevidenceplus.com(www.essentialevidenceplus.com).

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