According to a new study published in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association, mortality due to hypertension is decreasing, yet it s still greater in people with high blood pressure compared to those without. Study author Dr. Earl S. Ford, medical officer with the U.S. Public Health Service at the CDC, and his colleagues analyzed death rates from the 1971-1975 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) I Epidemiologic Follow-up Study and compared it to data from the 1988-1994 NHANES III Linked Mortality Study. They found that mortality rates for hypertensive patients fell by 33 percent in men and 12 percent in women, however, the death rate was still 57 percent higher in patients with high blood pressure. The major causes of increased mortality among hypertensives are heart attack and stroke, but kidney failure is also common.
Despite improved treatment, the mortality gap remains, indicating that hypertensive patients should be closely monitored for other risk factors for cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, such as lipid levels, diabetes, smoking and their weight.
In addition, more patients with high blood pressure are being diagnosed and treated, although there remain a large number of hypertensives who are not being treated adequately, adds ACSH's Dr. Gilbert Ross. This is doubly tragic, because fortunately we have many excellent drugs available to treat this condition, so people should definitely get their blood pressure checked and treated effectively if elevated.
