Controlled BP Down Among U.S. Adults With HTN After 2013–2014

The prevalence of controlled blood pressure (BP) among U.S. adults with hypertension increased from 1999-2000 to 2007-2008 then decreased after 2013 to 2014, according to a study published online Sept. 9 in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Paul Muntner, Ph.D., from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and colleagues conducted a cross-sectional analysis of 1999-2000 to 2017-2018 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey data for 18,262 U.S. adults with hypertension. BP control was defined as systolic BP <140 mm Hg and diastolic BP <90 mm Hg.

The researchers found that the age-adjusted estimated proportion of adults with controlled BP increased from 31.8 to 48.5 percent from 1999-2000 to 2007-2008. Levels of controlled BP then remained stable, reaching 53.8 percent in 2013 to 2014, before decreasing to 43.7 percent by 2017 to 2018. Controlled BP was more likely among those aged 45 to 64 years and less likely among those aged 75 years or older compared with adults aged 18 to 44 years (multivariable-adjusted prevalence ratios, 1.18 and 0.81, respectively). Controlled BP was estimated to be less likely among non-Hispanic Blacks versus non-Hispanic Whites (multivariable-adjusted prevalence ratio, 0.88).

"In the midst of the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic in which elevated blood pressure level is a major comorbidity, it is especially important that clinicians and health care systems not be complacent about the control of hypertension," write the authors of an accompanying editorial.

Several authors disclosed financial ties to the pharmaceutical industry.