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Comment & Response
January 2018

Limitations of Observational Data in Interpreting SPRINT Results

Author Affiliations
  • 1Department of Biostatistical Sciences, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, North Carolina
  • 2Division of Geriatrics, School of Medicine, University of Utah, Salt Lake City
  • 3VA Salt Lake City Geriatric Research, Education and Clinical Center, Salt Lake City, Utah
  • 4Section of Gerontology and Geriatric Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, North Carolina
JAMA Intern Med. 2018;178(1):154-155. doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2017.7215

To the Editor We read with interest the Research Letter in a recent issue of JAMA Internal Medicine by Sexton et al1 on the rates of syncope and injurious falls in Irish Longitudinal Study of Aging (TILDA) participants 75 years or older meeting eligibility criteria for the Systolic Blood Pressure Intervention Trial (SPRINT). Their work highlights the principle that clinical trials are a starting point for therapeutic discussions but that medical care much be individualized to the patient’s estimated risk. However, there are several important differences between these 2 studies that merit discussion when considering the higher rates of syncope and injurious falls observed in TILDA.

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