In a recent study, researchers found that the 2017 blood pressure guidelines may help prevent more than 3 million heart attacks and strokes over ten years.
In 2017, the American Heart Association and the American College of Cardiology released new blood pressure guidelines.
The new guidelines lower high blood pressure threshold to 130/80 mm Hg from the previous 140/90 mm Hg.
Treating high blood pressure can help protect the health and improve quality of life for tens of millions of Americans.
Previous studies have suggested the initial upfront investment for treating more adults for hypertension leads to health gains and cost savings over the lifetime of treatment.
But change does not always come easily.
In the study, the team explored the impact of achieving and maintaining the lower guideline-recommendations on public health compared to earlier blood pressure and treatment levels.
They used several contemporary, large population-based databases.
The NHANES dataset is a nationally representative survey of the U.S. adult population and provides population sizes of hypertension treatment groups by blood pressure levels and chronic conditions.
The REGARDS database provides a source for the risk of fatal and nonfatal cardiovascular events.
The team compared the number of heart attacks and strokes in middle-aged adults based on the blood pressure goals of the 2017 blood pressure guidelines (< 130/80 mm Hg), the seventh Joint National Committee (JNC7) guidelines (< 140/90 mm Hg) and the Eighth Joint National Committee (JNC8) guidelines (140/90 mg Hg for patients younger than 60 and 150/90 mm Hg for patients older than 60).
Their analysis showed 3.3 million fewer cardiovascular disease events after achieving and maintaining the 2017 blood pressure goals compared to current blood pressure levels.
The researcher also found that achieving and maintaining the JNC7 and JNC8 recommended blood pressure goals would prevent 2.6 and 1.6 million cardiovascular disease events, respectively.
Treating more patients to achieve lower blood pressure goals does have risks. The team notes that medications often come with side effects, which need to be monitored and managed.
The team suggests a conversation and shared decision making between provider and patient about the benefits and risks of increasing the dose of a medication or adding a new medication to achieve a lower target are important.
The study’s lead author is Adam Bress, Pharm.D., M.S. from the University of Utah Health. Andrew Moran at Columbia University is the senior author of the paper.
The results of the study are published in Circulation.
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