22 Million US Adults Qualify for Blood Pressure Drugs as 43% Remain Untreated
Updated
Updated · Gizmodo · Jul 29
22 Million US Adults Qualify for Blood Pressure Drugs as 43% Remain Untreated
3 articles · Updated · Gizmodo · Jul 29
Summary
New research tied to updated AHA guidelines found about 22 million U.S. adults are eligible for blood pressure-lowering drugs, with roughly 9.7 million of them not taking any medication.
NHANES data from 2009 to 2018 showed about 81 million U.S. adults have hypertension, and the revised guidance newly expanded drug eligibility by using the PREVENT cardiovascular-risk tool.
Compared with untreated adults, patients on the drugs had a 23% lower all-cause death risk and a 50% lower cardiovascular death risk in the researchers’ estimates.
Treating every eligible adult could prevent about 200,000 deaths overall and 162,000 cardiovascular deaths over the next decade, underscoring a large treatment gap despite continued emphasis on diet and exercise.
If aggressive new blood pressure targets can prevent hundreds of thousands of deaths, why are nearly 10 million eligible Americans still untreated?
With millions newly eligible for blood pressure pills, could flawed single-visit clinic readings be pushing healthy adults into unnecessary treatments?
Could a simple change in medical guidelines suddenly require millions of healthy-feeling Americans to start taking daily heart medication?