Prevalence of Heart Disease and Stroke Risk Factors in Persons With Prehypertension in the United States, 1999-2000

Top Cited Papers
Open Access
Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Hypertension affects an estimated 50 million Americans in the United States, and it was a primary or contributing cause of approximately 251 000 deaths in 2000.1 In the 30 years since initiation of the National High Blood Pressure Education Program, the awareness, treatment, and control of high blood pressure (BP) have increased, but they remain suboptimal. Only approximately 34% of persons with high BP have it controlled.2 The Seventh Report of the Joint National Committee on Prevention, Detection, Evaluation and Treatment of High Blood Pressure (JNC 7) defines persons with above-optimal levels but not clinical hypertension as having “prehypertension.”2 One justification for this new term is that persons with BPs in this range (systolic BP [SBP] of 120-139 mm Hg or diastolic BP [DBP] of 80-89 mm Hg) have a greater risk of developing clinical hypertension than do persons with lower BP levels.2 It is also possible that persons with above-optimal BP levels are more likely to have other heart disease and stroke risk factors that are high or above optimal. Whereas numerous studies3-10 have noted the clustering or coexistence of clinically high risk factors and their relation to heart disease and stroke, few studies11,12 have examined the co-occurrence of risk factors in persons with above-optimal BP levels. We examined data from a nationally representative sample of the US population to compare differences in the prevalence of concomitant heart disease and stroke risk factors in persons with normal BP, prehypertension, and hypertension.