Home Cardiology CDC: Half of Americans With HTN Don’t Have BP Under Control

CDC: Half of Americans With HTN Don’t Have BP Under Control

Improvement since 1999, but still short of Healthy People 2020 goal

THURSDAY, Nov. 12, 2015 (HealthDay News) — About 47 percent of individuals with hypertension do not have the condition under control, through either lifestyle changes or medications, according to a November data brief published by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics.

In 1999, more than 68 percent of patients did not have their blood pressure under control, the researchers found. But the improvement is still far short of the federal Healthy People 2020 goal, which calls for fewer than 40 percent of patients to have uncontrolled hypertension by that date, according to the CDC researchers.

The overall rate of hypertension in the United States has remained constant, hovering between 28 and 29 percent, according to the new report. Two in three people over the age of 60 have hypertension, and one in three people between the ages of 40 and 59 have the condition.

Whites are most likely to have their blood pressure under control (55.7 percent), the CDC report showed. Blacks (48.5 percent under control), Asians (43.5 percent) and Hispanics (47.4 percent) are all more likely to be living with uncontrolled hypertension.

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