Clinician Decision Making in Managing Primary Aldosteronism: A Qualitative Study

Primary aldosteronism (PA) is underdiagnosed in people living with hypertension, despite its considerable prevalence, association with poorer cardiovascular and kidney outcomes, and availability of effective treatment. The factors underlying such underdiagnosis and undertreatment remain uncertain. This study aimed to identify key factors influencing screening, diagnosis and treatment of PA from the clinician's perspective.

Exploratory qualitative study.

Thirty-eight clinicians were recruited from across Australia, including cardiologists (n = 8), endocrinologists (n = 10), general practitioners (n = 10) and nephrologists (n = 10). Purposive sampling achieved diversity in practice location, setting, and clinical experience. In-depth semistructured interviews were conducted between May and November 2024.

Interview transcripts were analyzed using both deductive content analysis aligned with the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research and inductive reflexive thematic analysis.

Four themes were developed to explain factors affecting clinician screening, diagnosis, and treatment decisions: (1) Clinician experience, knowledge, and perceptions; (2) PA screening and diagnosis complexity and burden; (3) accessibility of services and information; and (4) health system, government, and organizational factors. Common barriers across clinician groups included that PA is often considered in a narrow patient cohort, with older and comorbid populations not considered candidates for screening; that the perceived complexity and burden associated with PA diagnosis inhibits initiation of the diagnostic process; that limited access to services is a barrier to screening or workup of PA; and that lack of streamlined and local diagnostic services contributes to fragmented care and diagnostic delay. Key facilitators included access to specialized diagnostic units and cross-disciplinary and collegial decision making in patient management.

Generalizability may be limited due to Australian context.

These findings highlight key factors that influence clinicians' decision making in PA detection and management, providing important guidance to the design of future clinician-targeted interventions to improve PA diagnosis and treatment.