It seems that clinicians need to learn not to judge the proverbial book solely by its cover. According to a new study published in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association, patients who are leaner than others are less likely to have their hypertension treated. Researchers from the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston found that being male, being lean, having no diagnosis of chronic kidney disease, having a lower risk of heart disease, and making fewer visits to the doctor were all associated with untreated high blood pressure.
In the study, data on over 13,000 hypertensive adults from three different survey periods of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) between 1988 and 2008 were analyzed; it turns out that over 40 percent of untreated high blood pressure patients in all survey periods reported just a single annual trip to the doctor or none at all. Infrequent health care visits, says Dr. Brent Egan, who led the study, is the major issue in this cohort of untreated hypertensive patients.
Since people who are leaner (based on BMI measurement) and have a lower risk of heart disease tend to be healthier in general, they apparently aren t making it out to see their doctors on a regular basis, says ACSH's Dr. Gilbert Ross. For an average healthy person, a once-yearly doctor s visit is adequate, but for hypertensive patients, it s crucial that they receive regular monitoring, since this condition can lead to serious complications, including heart disease, kidney disease, and stroke.
Most of the education, Dr. Ross adds, should be geared to lean males who should be reminded to visit their doctors frequently and make sure they re getting treatment regularly. Currently, over 30 million people with uncontrolled blood pressure remain in the U.S.; I can hardly describe this as a success in treating hypertension.
