Rising incidence of high blood pressure
Although heart disease and stroke are the first and third leading causes of death in the United States, there has been a continued reduction in the overall death rates from these diseases. The medical community has attributed these improvements to a higher quality of medical treatment, lower sodium consumption, and more and more people giving up smoking. However, mortality rates from heart disease and stroke are expected to rise as America’s population grows older. Finding newer and more effective ways to treat hypertension will help prevent the number of deaths from both heart disease and stroke from getting out of control.
While studies have shown that the incidence of high blood pressure in America is declining, the statistics and trends related to high blood pressure remain staggering, if not mixed. For example, hypertension currently affects over 25% of all Americans — roughly 50 million people. In the United States in 1999, high blood pressure caused the death of 42,997 people and contributed to the deaths of an additional 227,000 others. (As compared to the year before, this represents a decrease of 1,438 caused by high blood pressure, and an increase of 17,000 due to complications from the condition.) What makes high blood pressure a greater health concern is that an estimated 31.6% of Americans have the disorder but do not even know it. Another obstacle in the fight for better treatment and prevention is lack of knowledge about treating the condition. The American Heart Association estimates that one-third of all people who have high blood pressure do not know how to manage or control it effectively.
The overall death rate from high blood pressure in 1999 for white men and women was 12.8 — compared to 40.3 for black females and 46.8 for black males — per 100,000.
Doctors and researchers alike attribute the slight decline in the development of high blood pressure to the lifestyle improvements of younger people and more effective drug therapies for older patients. However, with America’s aging society and the significant lack of awareness about high blood pressure, future trends in this area continue to be a great cause for concern.
For example, in the area of obesity alone, a disturbing 1999-2000 government study found that 31% of all Americans (almost 59 million people) are obese. When compared to the 15% obesity rate in 1980, it means that twice as many Americans are obese today as were obese 20 years ago. Obesity is a major risk for high blood pressure, heart disease, strokes, diabetes, and different types of cancer. Adults who are even moderately obese are twice as likely to develop high blood pressure as people who are not overweight.
Studies also show that obesity may be the leading cause of high blood pressure in older adults, and that children and adolescents who are overweight — and babies who are underweight — stand a greater chance of developing the condition when they become adults. For these and other reasons, high blood pressure will continue to be a serious and threatening public health concern for the United States.
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