Background and objective:
Arterial hypertension (AH) is the greatest risk factor for global mortality, however, many patients hospitalized for its complications were never correctly diagnosed or even had their blood pressure measured. Therefore, this study aims to develop and validate a screening protocol to assess the risk of SAH in Primary Health Care (PHC).

Methods:
Questions related to the etiology of SAH were elaborated, based on national guidelines and literature review. A panel of experts assessed the questionnaires content validity in terms of clarity, relevance, and pertinence. From the responses, the item content validity index (CVI) was obtained by averaging the items and indexes >0.8 were considered adequate. The instrument was applied to 200 PHC users and exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis were performed, adopting the following cut-off points: RMSEA < 0.09; CFI and TLI > 0.90; H index >0.80; and Cronbachs α >0.70.

Results:
23 experts responded to the content analysis. The CVI for clarity was 0.81, and relevance and pertinence, 0.94. Of the 21 initial items, one was excluded and eight reformulated. After exploratory factor analysis, only ten items remained, being grouped into two dimensions (sociodemographic factors and health and lifestyle conditions), explaining 52.15% of the variation. The factorial structure presented adequate adjustment indices, except for CFI/TLI (RMSEA: 0.068; CFI: 0.893; TLI: 0.818; H index: 0.890). Reliability analysis showed Cronbachs α of 0.535, indicating poor reliability and validity.

Conclusion:
The questionnaire proved to be adequate in the content analysis and in the factorial analyses, however, regarding the reliability assessment, the data were not adequate, so that it is necessary to adapt the instrument so that it meets its objective. Financial support: CNPq; UFOP.