High blood pressure, also called hypertension, is a major health concern that affects many adults in the United States.
If it’s not treated, it can lead to serious problems like heart attacks, strokes, and kidney disease. Older adults are especially at risk, and a recent study has shown that many of them are not getting the treatment they need.
The study found that fewer than 30% of seniors who should be getting stronger treatment for high blood pressure are actually receiving it. This is worrying because controlling blood pressure can prevent dangerous health issues.
Blood pressure is measured with two numbers. The first, called systolic pressure, shows how hard your blood pushes when your heart beats. The second, called diastolic pressure, shows the pressure when your heart is resting between beats.
According to new medical guidelines, high blood pressure is now defined as 130 over 80 (130/80 mmHg) or higher. This change means more people are now considered to have high blood pressure and should be treated.
Researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center looked at health records from adults aged 60 and older. They studied 10 years of data from 2008 to 2018 and focused on people who visited their regular doctors and had high blood pressure.
They wanted to see how often doctors gave stronger medicine when a patient’s blood pressure was still too high. This is called “antihypertensive intensification,” which means adding a new medicine or increasing the dose of the current one.
During the study, there were more than 7,400 visits where doctors should have changed the treatment. This represents about 293 million such visits across the U.S. But in most of these cases, the treatment wasn’t changed.
Only 27.5% of patients got the stronger treatment they needed. Among those who were already taking blood pressure medicine, the number was even lower—only 15.3% had their treatment adjusted.
Even more surprising, the rate of proper treatment actually got worse over the 10 years, even though the guidelines were updated to encourage better control of blood pressure.
The researchers think this may be because doctors worry that stronger treatment could cause problems for older people, like dizziness or falls. These risks are real, and falls can be dangerous for seniors.
Also, some patients don’t want to take more medicine because they’re afraid of side effects or they’re already taking many pills. Doctors also have very little time during appointments—usually only about 15 minutes—to talk about many health issues. Because of this, adjusting blood pressure treatment might not happen as often as it should.
The researchers say that new solutions are needed to help doctors manage high blood pressure in older adults more effectively. One idea is to improve electronic medical records so doctors get a reminder if a patient’s blood pressure is too high. This could help ensure that medication changes are made before the patient leaves.
Dr. Nicholas Chiu, the lead author of the study, says that fixing this problem could help prevent heart disease and strokes in older adults. It could also mean fewer hospital visits, better quality of life, and longer lives for many seniors.
The study was published in the AHA journal Hypertension. It shows that while we have good treatments for high blood pressure, they only work if doctors and patients use them. Helping more seniors get the right treatment could make a big difference in public health.
If you care about high blood pressure, please read studies that early time-restricted eating could help improve blood pressure, and natural coconut sugar could help reduce blood pressure and artery stiffness.
For more health information, please see recent studies about added sugar in your diet linked to higher blood pressure, and results showing vitamin D could improve blood pressure in people with diabetes.
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