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Roughly 27% of the US adult population suffers from high blood pressure or hypertension, yet less than one quarter of these individuals are taking medication to control their condition.
The report, based on a survey of more than 16,000 adults aged 25 or older, indicates that about 27% of respondents had blood pressure of at least 140/90 mm Hg. But only 23% of these individuals were taking medication to bring their blood pressure down to safe levels.
What's more, 31% of people with high blood pressure were unaware of their condition, the researchers note.
Access to and use of healthcare played only a minor role in whether or not a person with high blood pressure received treatment. Some 92% of people with uncontrolled hypertension had health insurance, and about 75% of those unaware of their hypertension had had their blood pressure measured within the past year.
Hypertensive individuals were more likely to have elevated systolic pressure, the top number in the reading, which measures pressure when the heart contracts.
Studies have shown that in elderly people, this number is more closely associated with heart disease risk than diastolic pressure, the bottom number that refers to blood pressure levels while the heart is between beats.
The New England Journal of Medicine August 14, 2001; 345:479-486, 534-535
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