Kabir 2007.

Methods	Study design: ITS
Participants	Physicians Clinical speciality: not clear Level of training: fully trained Setting/country: not clear/Ireland
Interventions	3 PEMs were studied in this report: 1. the LIFE (2002), 2. the ALLHAT (18 December 2002), and 3. the VALUE (2004). The LIFE study showed that for a similar level of BP reduction losartan reduced events more than atenolol, a β‐adrenoceptor blocker. The ALLHAT trial confirmed that thiazides (chlorthalidone) controlled systolic BP as well as, and in elected subgroups better than both ACE inhibitors (lisinopril) and calcium channel blockers (amlodipine). However, the VALUE trial showed that the amlodipine‐based regimen significantly reduced BP further than valsartan, especially in the early period. Another feature common to all studies was a demonstration of the need for polypharmacy to achieve BP control
Outcomes	7 process outcomes: prescription for atenolol  (monthly rate of new prescriptions for atenolol before and after LIFE prescription for losartan (monthly rate of new prescriptions for losartan before and after LIFE) prescription for ACE inhibitors (monthly rate of new prescriptions for ACE inhibitors before and after ALLHAT) prescription for amlodopine (monthly rate of new prescriptions for amlodopine before and after ALLHAT) prescription for thiazide‐type diuretic (monthly rate of new prescriptions for thiazide‐type diuretics  before and after ALLHAT) prescription for valsartan (monthly rate of new prescriptions for valsartan before and after VALUE) prescription for calcium channel blockers (monthly rate of new prescriptions for calcium channel blockers before and after VALUE)
Notes	‐
Risk of bias
Bias	Authors' judgement	Support for judgement
Intervention independent of other changes ‐ ITS	Unclear risk	No information was provided
Shape of Intervention effect pre‐specified ‐ ITS	Unclear risk	Quote, pg. 382: "studies in Canada and the US have shown that such publications have influenced prescribing patterns. This study assesses such prescribing patterns in Ireland from January 2001 to July 2005, 12 months before and after the publication of the three major hypertension trials: LIFE, ALLHAT and VALUE"
Intervention unlikely to affect data collection ‐ ITS	Low risk	The interventions (LIFE, ALLHAT, and VALUE studies)  did not affect either the source or method of data collection
Blinding of outcome assessors (detection bias) ‐ ITS All outcomes	Low risk	The outcome was objective
Incomplete outcome data (attrition bias) ‐ ITS All outcomes	Low risk	Data were collected from a regional database
Selective reporting (reporting bias) ‐ ITS	Low risk	All relevant outcomes in the methods section were reported in results section
Other bias ‐ ITS	Low risk	There was no evidence of other risks of bias