Table 2.
Reasons why potentially relevant papers were excluded.
| Complementary and alternative medicine | Over-the-counter medicine | Private care | Home blood pressure monitors | Self-tests | Totala | |
| Study did not identify factors, reasons or characteristics associated with a relevant activity (1) | 21 | 25 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 54 |
| Study did not involve adults or differentiate between children and adults (2) | 11 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 14 |
| Activity was initiated by a conventional health professional (3) | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Outcome was simply the intention or willingness to do an activity (4) | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 |
| Study involved a selected population (5) | 56 | 12 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 65 |
| Study did not relate to UK residents (6) | 8 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 10 |
| Review, letter or opinion (7) | 6 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 8 |
| Total | 105 | 47 | 6 | 3 | 5 | 157 |
a Totals may be less than the sum of the components because some papers were identified by different databases.