Encourage patients to ‘know their numbers’ on World Hypertension Day

AMA is supporting the Know Your Numbers campaign to encourage patients to monitor their BP levels to get their hypertension under control, according to a press release. The organization is joining the American Heart Association (AHA) to increase awareness that one in three American adults living with high BP are at an increased risk of myocardial infarction and stroke.

Nearly half of the 85 million American adults with elevated BP ado not have their pressure adequately controlled. Moreover, approximately 20% of people with high BP in the United States do not know they have the condition, increasing risk for heart failure and stroke. Elevated BP is associated with a significant economic impact, costing Americans an estimated $46 billion annually in health services, medications and missed work days.

Andrew W. Gurman, MD, president of AMA, stressed the importance of being aware of BP.

“Heart disease not only has a devastating impact on patients and their families, but it also creates an enormous financial ripple effect across the entire health care system,” Gurman said in the press release. “On World Hypertension Day, the AMA continues to focus on the millions of Americans who have uncontrolled hypertension. We know that by empowering more patients to monitor and control their BP, we will help improve health outcomes for patients and reduce health care costs.”

To help empower patients, the AMA and AHA launched the Target: BP initiative in 2016 to urge physicians, health systems and patients to prioritize BP control. Ultimately, the associations hope to increase the national control rate from 54% to 70% or higher. Evidence shows that an increase in hypertension treatment could potentially prevent 14,000 deaths each year.

The AMA is dedicated to reducing the burden of preventable diseases to improve the nation’s health.

In honor of World Hypertension Day, Healio Internal Medicine compiled a list of the six most recent news articles regarding the condition.

ACP, AAFP recommend ‘less aggressive’ systolic BP target for older patients with hypertension

The ACP and American Academy of Family Physicians jointly released an evidence-based clinical guideline on the appropriate systolic BP target for adults aged 60 years and older for the treatment of hypertension, recommending that a less aggressive treatment target may be optimal for otherwise healthy patients. Read More.

Yoga effectively prevents hypertension

In patients with prehypertension, 1 hour of hatha yoga a day reduced BP levels, according to study findings presented at the 68th Annual Conference of the Cardiological Society of India. Read More.

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Primary care clinics report low adherence to USPSTF hypertension guidelines

Compared with clinics affiliated with a hospital, many primary care clinics are not following U.S. Preventive Services Task Force guidelines on diagnosing hypertension, according to research published in the Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine. Read More.

Hypertension, depending on age of onset, may lower risk for dementia

The age at which an elderly person develops hypertension may also determine how likely that person is to develop dementia, according to findings published in Alzheimer’s and Dementia. Read More.

Novel BP loci may offer new therapeutic targets for hypertension

Findings recently published in Nature Genetics show new gene regions found to be related to hypertension. These 107 new gene regions have the potential to benefit patients with new drug targets for hypertension treatments, the researchers wrote. Read More.

Clinical BP may underestimate hypertension risk

Daily 24-hour ambulatory monitoring revealed masked hypertension in adults who showed normal BP readings in a clinical setting, according to findings published in Circulation. Read More.