However, NHANES data show that hypertension rates remained unchanged during last decade
TUESDAY, May 25 (HealthDay News) -- The proportion of hypertensive patients with control of the condition has reached a Healthy People 2010 goal, though rates of hypertension have remained unchanged during the past decade, according to research published in the May 26 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Brent M. Egan, M.D., of the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, and colleagues analyzed data on 42,856 adults participating in National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (NHANES) from 1988 to 2008. Hypertension control was defined as values less than 140/90 mm Hg.
The researchers found that hypertension rates rose from 23.9 percent in 1988 to 1994 to 28.5 percent in 1999 to 2000, but stayed unchanged at 29 percent between 1999 to 2000 and 2007 to 2008. However, hypertension control rose from 27.3 percent in the earliest period to 50.1 percent in 2007 to 2008, reaching the Healthy People 2010 objective of blood pressure control in 50 percent of individuals with hypertension.
"Although lifestyle changes can reduce blood pressure and the risk of developing hypertension, successful behavioral approaches to modify lifestyles on a population basis have lagged far behind the advances in the drug treatment of hypertension," writes the author of an accompanying editorial. "In the long run, the far superior approach to controlling hypertension and cardiovascular diseases will be prevention rather than treatment."
Abstract
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