About 60% of U.S. Adults Have Hypertension, Pre-Hypertension, New Studies Find
About 60% of U.S. adults have hypertension or pre-hypertension based on new guidelines issued last year by the federal government, according to several new studies, Scripps Howard/Washington Times reports. Under the guidelines, hypertension is defined as systolic blood pressure of 140 or higher and diastolic blood pressure of 90 or higher (Bowman, Scripps Howard/Washington Times, 10/26).
Pre-hypertension, a new risk category established by the government, is defined as a systolic blood pressure of between 120 and 139 and diastolic blood pressure of between 80 and 89 (Ritter, Chicago Sun-Times, 10/26).
Summaries of the results of the studies, which appeared on Monday in the Archives of Internal Medicine, appear below.
- A study conducted by researchers from the University of Illinois-Chicago found that 58% of participants in a 1999-2000 government survey of 4,805 adults had either hypertension or pre-hypertension. According to the study, 27% of participants had hypertension, and 31% had pre-hypertension. The study also found that 63% African-American participants, 76% of obese participants and 88% of participants ages 60 and older had hypertension or pre-hypertension. In addition, the study found that 69% of participants with hypertension were aware they had the condition and that 31% of participants with hypertension were able to reduce their blood pressure to less than 140/90 (Chicago Sun-Times, 10/26). An abstract of the study is available online.
- A second study conducted by researchers from Rutgers University and the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey Robert Wood Johnson Medical School found that as many as 66% of U.S. residents between ages 45 and 64 and 80% of those between ages 65 and 74 might have pre-hypertension or residual hypertension. In addition, the study found that for every 10,000 adults between ages 25 and 74, pre-hypertension and residual hypertension account for about 14% of deaths, 10% of nursing home admissions and 4.7% of hospital admissions. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality funded the study (AHRQ release, 10/25). An abstract of the study is available online.
- A third study conducted by CDC researchers found that 60% of U.S. residents ages 20 and older have hypertension or pre-hypertension (Scripps Howard/Washington Times, 10/26). The study analyzed data from 3,488 individuals between 1999 and 2000 and found that 31% of participants had pre-hypertension and that 29% had hypertension. The study found that 37% of African-American participants ages 20 to 39 had pre-hypertension, compared with 32.2% of white participants and 30.9% of Mexican-American participants (Greenlund et al., "Prevalence of Heart Disease and Stroke Risk Factors in Persons With Prehypertension in the United States, 1999-2000," Archives of Internal Medicine, 10/25). An abstract of the study if available online.