Prevalence, awareness, treatment and control of hypertension in the elderly: results from a population survey

Abstract

Prevalence, awareness, treatment and control of hypertension were assessed in 1032 (90%) of 1147 elderly (у65 years) inhabitants of three Italian villages. Blood pressure (BP) was measured at home on two separate occasions following a standardised protocol. Persons taking antihypertensive drugs or with BP values у140/90 mm Hg were considered as affected by hypertension. Prevalence of hypertension was 64.8%, with higher rates in women than men, and in those aged 75-84 than in those aged 65-74. Diabetes, strokes and hypercholesterolaemia were more frequent in hypertensive than normotensive people, whereas cardiac diseases, overweight and smoking did not differ significantly between hypertensive and normotensive people. Of the 669 hypertensive patients, 439 (65.6%) were aware of their hypertension, 398 (59.5%) were being treated, and 70 (10.5%) had their hypertension con-

Prevalence, awareness, treatment and control of hypertension in the elderly population of Singapore

“…36 The prevalence of hypertension and its awareness, treatment and control in studies conducted exclusively among the elderly and using our criteria for defining hypertension is given in Table 5. 14,15,17,[19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27] Although most of these studies reported a lower prevalence of hypertension 17,20,[22][23][24][25]27 than what we observed (73.9%), some Hypertension among elderly Singaporeans R Malhotra et al reported a similar prevalence 14,19,21,23,26 or, in one study, 15 an even higher prevalence. Other than differences in the BP measurement instrument (manual or electronic) and number of readings (two or three) used for defining SBP and DBP, the variation could also reflect differences in demographic (for example, age, gender, ethnicity) and lifestyle (for example, diet, physical activity) profiles and in economic development across countries (prevalence is usually higher in more developed economies 38 ).…”

“…A variety of socio-demographic and health variables, evaluated as potential correlates with hypertension and/or awareness, treatment and control of hypertension in previous studies, 6,[14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27]32 were evaluated as correlates in the present analysis.…”

“…1,14,15,17,[19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27] Among hypertensives, those who responded in the negative to 'Have you ever been diagnosed with high blood pressure by a medical professional?' were considered to be unaware and those who responded in the negative to 'Are you presently taking any medicine prescribed by a physician for high blood pressure?'…”

“…4,6 Recognizing the elderly as an at-risk population, studies in various countries have documented the prevalence and correlates of hypertension and of awareness, treatment and control of hypertension among the elderly. [14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27] These studies suggest considerable heterogeneity for the prevalence of these conditions across elderly subgroups, defined by socio-demographic or health characteristics. Furthermore, neither the prevalence nor the identified correlates are uniform across countries.…”

A high level of awareness but a poor control of hypertension among elderly Greeks. The Nemea primary care study

“…Epidemiological surveys in the USA and in Europe have shown prevalence rates varying from 53-72.3%. [7][8][9][10][11][12] Our study has potential limitations. The trend demonstrated in our study for higher prevalence among men compared with women was observed in surveys among younger study populations.…”