The trends in the usage of blood pressure lowering medication during the period 2000-2015 (360G-Wellcome-207340_Z_17_Z)

High blood pressure is a leading cause of cardiovascular deaths worldwide. This risk factor has become so common that it has been declared a global public health crisis by the World Health Association. Despite availability of evidence-based and cost-effective drugs, uncontrolled high blood pressures remain a problem. Thus, it is important to understand how these drugs are used at the population level, as this may help understand some of the reasons for uncontrolled blood pressures. The Clinical Practice Research Datalink is a repository of electronic health records from primary care in the UK. A prepared dataset of ~1 million people using BP lowering medication between 2000-2015 will be used. This dataset includes information on number and types of blood pressure lowering drugs individuals used per year, in addition to demographic factors. I will analyse the following trends over time; 1) the prescribing frequency of certain categories of blood pressure lowering drugs, 2) the mean number of drugs per person and 3) polypharmacy in the treatment of high blood pressure. My key goal is to learn how to conduct a research study, and to make a high quality contribution to our knowledge on prescribing for the treatment of high blood pressure.