Death Rate Among Americans With Hypertension May Be Declining

HealthDay (4/25, Goodwin) reported that “although the death rate among Americans with high blood pressure, or hypertension, has fallen since the 1970s, it still far exceeds the death rate for those with normal blood pressure,” according to a study published in Circulation. Investigators “looked at data on about 23,000 adults aged 25 to 74 from two national health surveys: the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) I, which recruited participants between 1971 and 1975; and NHANES III, which enrolled adults between 1988 and 1994.” The “death rates among those with high blood pressure fell between the two time periods, from 18.8 per 1,000 person-years to 14.3 per 1,000 person-years.”

WebMD (4/25, Nierenberg) reported that the rates were “still higher than in people with normal blood pressure.” The researchers also found that, “among women with high blood pressure, smaller declines in the death rate were found than those seen in men, even though a higher percentage of women were receiving treatment and, on average, they also had larger reductions in their blood pressure readings.”