Conclusions. Regardless the method the information on benefit was provided, the maximum amount of money which people are willing to pay for antihypertensive varied substantially. Using relative risk to present the benefit would distort the viewpoint of the public regarding the importance of drug treatment. Residents were much more conservative in antihypertensive drugs than physicians. Most hypertensive patients in China would probably not accept drugs treatment for primary prevention if they are adequately informed. Rural residents were on average, less willing to take antihypertensive drugs than urban residents. Residents had a poor perception of their cardiovascular risk due to hypertension and the benefit of drug treatment. Most physicians in our study did not have good knowledge on overall risk approach and Chinese national guidelines. They had also very poor knowledge and skills related to evidence based medicine. (Abstract shortened by UMI.) / Objective. To assess the maximum amount of money residents are willing to pay for antihypertensive drugs given the actual benefit of treatment. To decide the minimum benefit (expressed in NNT) above which people are willing to pay for antihypertensive drugs at the current cost. To determine the minimum risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) above which people would be willing to pay for antihypertensive at the current cost. To assess whether reporting of study results by using relative risk reduction and NNT affects people's willingness to pay for and physicians' willingness to prescribe antihypertensive drugs. To evaluate patients' and physicians' perception of perceived CVD risk due to hypertension and benefit of treatment. To assess knowledge, attitude and perception of the public and physicians regarding antihypertensive drugs and physicians' knowledge and skills on evidence based medicine. / Results. The response rate for residents was 91%. 95% of respondents reported that they would be willing to take antihypertensive drugs if they found to have high blood pressure. The majority of residents did not know the ultimate goal of blood pressure lowering was to reduce the risk of CVD. 91% said that they had not enough knowledge and information to make drug-taking decisions. The perceived 5-year baseline risk in the absence of treatment, absolute risk reduction and relative risk reduction was 70%, 40% and 60% respectively. Rural residents tended to over-rate their risk and benefit more than urban residents. Overall, 2%, 3% and 47% of residents were not willing to pay anything for antihypertensive drugs when information on benefit of treatment was described in general, with RRR and with NNT respectively. The median cost the residents were willing to pay was $500, $700 and $100 respectively for responding three ways of describing the benefit. / The response rate for physicians was 95%. The perceived 5-year baseline risk, absolute risk reduction and relative risk reduction was 40%, 20% and 39% respectively. Internists tended to give a slightly higher estimate of the 5-year risk (40% vs 30%, p<0.05) and of the RRR (39 vs 29, p<0.05). Overall, physicians were more likely to prescribe antihypertensive drugs when the benefit information was expressed in RRR than when it was expressed in NNT (p<0.001). The median minimum NNT and the 5-year CVD risk above which physicians are willing to prescribe was 200 and 1.5% respectively. / Wang Weizhong. / "November 2006." / Adviser: Jinling Tang. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 68-08, Section: B, page: 5119. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 105-114) / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. [Ann Arbor, MI] : ProQuest Information and Learning, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, MI : ProQuest dissertations and theses, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / School code: 1307.