Blood Pressure Control low Among Females
Reported July 27, 2005
(Ivanhoe Newswire) — According to a new study, rates of blood pressure control are low among older women with hypertension.
“Elderly persons are among the fastest growing segments of the U.S. population and they have the highest prevalence of hypertension [high blood pressure],” according to the authors of the study. “Despite numerous trials demonstrating the benefits of blood pressure lowering among older individuals with hypertension, available data suggest that rates of treatment and control are suboptimal.”
Collaborating with Donald M. Lloyd, M.D., Sc.M., from the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University in Chicago, researchers from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute’s Framingham Heart Study compared the prevalence, patterns, treatment, control and risks of hypertension in people ages 80 years or older to younger individuals. Researchers divided the 5,296 participants (2,317 men and 2,979 women) by age and followed them for up to six years, monitoring for the development of cardiovascular problems.
Throughout the study, researchers determined the systolic blood pressure to be greater than or equal to 140 mm Hg (millimeters of mercury) and the diastolic blood pressure to be greater than or equal to 90 mm Hg.
Researchers found prevalence of hypertension and drug treatment increased with advancing age, whereas control rates were markedly lower in older women (systolic < 140 and diastolic < 90 mm Hg). They say, “For ages younger than 60 years, 60 to 79, and 80 years and older, respectively, control rates were 38 percent, 36 percent, and 38 percent in men and 38 percent, 28 percent, and 23 percent in women.” They also report the overall prevalence of treatment among participants with hypertension was 68.9 percent.
Almost 10 percent of the participants 80 years or older with normal blood pressure experienced major cardiovascular events. On average, 20 percent of the prehypertension, stage 1 and stage 2 or treated hypertension groups of the same age also experienced these events.
“With the aging population, the burden of hypertension is expected to increase significantly,” study authors concluded. “It is rare to escape the development of hypertension with aging; even for individuals free of hypertension at age 65 years, the remaining lifetime risk of developing hypertension is approximately 90 percent.”
SOURCE: The Journal of the American Medical Association, 2005:294:466-472