High blood pressure, also known as hypertension, is a serious health problem that affects many adults in the United States.
If left untreated, it can lead to heart attacks, strokes, and kidney damage. Older adults are especially at risk from the harmful effects of high blood pressure.
Even though controlling blood pressure can greatly improve health in older people, a new study shows that fewer than 30% of those who need strong treatment are actually getting it. This is a major health issue that needs urgent attention.
Blood pressure measures how hard your blood pushes against your artery walls. It is given as two numbers: systolic (the top number) and diastolic (the bottom number).
In recent years, the American College of Cardiology and American Heart Association updated the guidelines. Now, anyone with a systolic number of 130 or higher or a diastolic number of 80 or higher is considered to have high blood pressure.
This means more people than before are now classified as needing treatment. The study was done by researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. They looked at 10 years of data from people aged 60 and older who visited their regular doctors.
The goal was to see how many of them received stronger treatment by adding new blood pressure medicine when needed.
Out of more than 7,000 doctor visits between 2008 and 2018, many patients clearly needed additional treatment. Based on this sample, the researchers estimated that nearly 293 million visits across the country may have also needed stronger care.
However, even when it was clear that blood pressure was too high, doctors intensified treatment less than 28% of the time. For people already taking blood pressure medicine, the rate was even lower—only about 15%.
Over time, doctors became even less likely to adjust treatment, even as guidelines changed. One reason may be that doctors are afraid of side effects, like dizziness or falls in older adults. Some patients also worry about taking too many pills or dealing with side effects.
It’s not easy to manage high blood pressure in a short 15-minute doctor’s visit. Doctors must talk about many issues, including diet, weight, cholesterol, and other health risks, all while completing lots of paperwork.
Experts say new solutions are needed. One idea is to use electronic medical records to alert doctors when a patient’s blood pressure is too high. This reminder could help doctors act quickly and provide better care.
This study, led by Dr. Nicholas Chiu and published in the AHA journal Hypertension, shows that there’s a big gap between what we know about treating high blood pressure and what actually happens in clinics. Helping more older adults get the right treatment could prevent many serious health problems in the future.
If you care about blood pressure, please read studies about unhealthy habits that could increase high blood pressure risk, and people with severe high blood pressure should reduce coffee intake.
For more information about blood pressure, please see recent studies that early time-restricted eating could help improve blood pressure, and results showing plant-based foods could benefit people with high blood pressure.
