Nearly 30 percent of U.S. adults have hypertension
From 2011 to 2014, the prevalence of hypertension among adults in the U.S. was 29 percent, including 30 percent among men and 28.1 percent among women. However, only 53 percent of adults with hypertension had their high blood pressure under control.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released the data on Nov. 12 based on results of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.
The CDC said there has been no significant increase in hypertension prevalence between 1999 and 2014, although there has been a significant increase in the percentage of adults with controlled hypertension from 31.5 percent in 2009 and 2010 to 53.3 percent from 2009 to 2010.
The CDC’s Healthy People 2020 initiative aims for 61.2 percent of adults with hypertension to have their blood pressure under control by 2020.
The researchers defined hypertension as systolic blood pressure greater than or equal to 140 mmHg or diastolic blood pressure greater than or equal to 90 mmHg or if adults are currently taking medication to lower high blood pressure. They defined controlled hypertension as systolic blood pressure less than 140 mmHg and diastolic blood pressure less than 90 mmHg among those with hypertension.
The researchers found 7.3 percent of adults between 18 and 39 years old, 32.2 percent of adults between 40 and 59 years old and 64.9 percent of adults who were 60 or older had hypertension.
Further, the prevalence of hypertension was 41.2 percent among non-Hispanic black adults, 28 percent among non-Hispanic white adults, 24.9 percent among non-Hispanic Asian adults and 25.9 percent among Hispanic adults.
Of the adults with hypertension, the prevalence of people with their blood pressure under control was 37.4 percent among adults between 18 and 39 years old, 57.2 percent of adults between 40 and 59 years old and 52.5 percent of adults who were 60 or older.
In addition, 50.6 percent of men and 56.3 percent of women with hypertension had their blood pressure under control.
Executive Editor
Tim Casey joined TriMed Media Group in 2015 as Executive Editor. For the previous four years, he worked as an editor and writer for HMP Communications, primarily focused on covering managed care issues and reporting from medical and health care conferences. He was also a staff reporter at the Sacramento Bee for more than four years covering professional, college and high school sports. He earned his undergraduate degree in psychology from the University of Notre Dame and his MBA degree from Georgetown University.