It is possible that matched groups at baseline
regarding SBP, age, gender, years since diagnosis
of hypertension would be preferable. We can
compare our baseline characteristics with another
random sample of patients (n = 375) with hypertension
at ten other primary health care centres in
Sweden and patients in the same range of age
[20]. There were more females in our groups. A
possible explanation is that the women were more
ready to participate in the study and to test alternative
methods to lower blood pressure.