Background

Professional society guidelines are evidence-based recommendations intended to promote standardized care and improve health outcomes. Amid increased recognition of the role racism plays in shaping inequitable healthcare delivery, many researchers and practitioners have critiqued existing guidelines, particularly those that include race-based recommendations. Critiques highlight how racism influences the evidence that guidelines are based on and its interpretation. However, few have used a systematic methodology to examine race-based recommendations. This review examines hypertension guidelines, a condition affecting nearly half of all adults in the United States (US), to understand how guidelines reference and develop recommendations related to race.

Methods

A systematic scoping review of all professional guidelines on the management of essential hypertension published between 1977 and 2022 to examine the use and meaning of race categories.

Results

Of the 37 guidelines that met the inclusion criteria, we identified a total of 990 mentions of race categories. Black and African/African American were the predominant race categories referred to in guidelines (n = 409). Guideline authors used race in five key domains: describing the prevalence or etiology of hypertension; characterizing prior hypertension studies; describing hypertension interventions; social risk and social determinants of health; the complexity of race. Guideline authors largely used race categories as biological rather than social constructions. None of the guidelines discussed racism and the role it plays in perpetuating hypertension inequities.

Discussion

Hypertension guidelines largely refer to race as a distinct and natural category rather than confront the longstanding history of racism within and beyond the medical system. Normalizing race as a biological rather than social construct fails to address racism as a key determinant driving inequities in cardiovascular health. These changes are necessary to produce meaningful structural solutions that advance equity in hypertension education, research, and care delivery.