Jump To Content
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services National Institutes of Health   Web site home Contact Us Site Index
Prevent and Control America's High Blood Pressure: Mission Possible National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute: National High Blood Pressure Education Program
Be a partner: Businesses Health Industry Teachers & Schools Community & Civic Leaders

References and Sources

Prevent and Control High Blood Pressure: Mission Possible Call to Action Paper


References

  1. Together, we can prevent and control a health problem that affects 1 in 3 American adults: high blood pressure. (Fields, 2004)

  2. High blood pressure affects 65 million Americans. (Fields, 2004)

  3. Another 59 million people have prehypertension, which increases their chances of developing cardiovascular disease. (AHA, 2005)

  4. People over 55 have a 90 percent chance of developing high blood pressure in their lifetimes. (Vasan, 2002)

  5. High blood pressure can lead to other life-threatening illnesses, including the #1, #3, and #9 causes of death in the United States: heart disease, stroke, and kidney disease. (National Vital Statistics, 2004)

  6. Prehypertension (120/80 to 139/89 mmHg) increases heart disease (including heart attack and coronary heart disease) and stroke risk in both men and women by 45 and 100 percent respectively. (Vasan, 2001)

  7. High blood pressure is a factor in 69 percent of heart attacks in the U.S. (NHLBI, 2005)

  8. We can improve the lives of the 18 million people with diabetes who are more likely to develop high blood pressure than the population at large. (National Diabetes Information Clearinghouse, 2002).

  9. We can improve the lives of the 122 million American adults who are overweight or obese and, therefore, more likely to develop high blood pressure than the population at large. (Hedley, 2004)

  10. We can improve the lives of the nearly 60 million Americans ages 55 and over whose chances of developing high blood pressure during their lifetimes are 90 percent. ( U.S. Census Bureau, 2000; Vasan, 2002).

  11. High blood pressure is a factor in 77 percent of strokes – the #3 cause of death in the United States. (NHLBI, 2005)

  12. High blood pressure is also the most important reason why African Americans are 4 times more likely to develop kidney failure than Caucasians. (USRDS, 2004)

  13. African American women are especially affected by high blood pressure. They are 3 times more likely to die of heart disease or stroke before age 60 than Caucasian women (Vital Statistics, 2001).

  14. Treating high blood pressure in older people can reduce their odds of having a heart attack by 27 percent, a stroke by 36 percent, and heart failure by 54 percent. (SHEP, 1991)

  15. More women than men have died of cardiovascular diseases every year since 1984. (Vital Statistics, 2001; AHA, 2005)

  16. As many women die from cardiovascular diseases each year as the next 6 causes of death combined, including breast cancer. (AHA, 2005)

  17. Young African American adults are twice as likely as Caucasians to have high blood pressure. (Burt, 1995)

  18. New research shows that the odds of your developing heart disease and stroke start to increase at levels as low as 115/75 mmHg and double for each 20/10 mmHg. (Lewington, 2002)

  19. High blood pressure precedes 74 percent of cases of heart failure. (NHLBI, 2005)

  20. If we achieve our goals, 50 percent of Americans will have their high blood pressure under control. (Healthy People 2010)

  21. If we achieve our goals, 95 percent of Americans will know if their blood pressure is normal or high. (Healthy People 2010)

  22. If we achieve our goals, the percentage of Americans with high blood pressure will be reduced from 31 percent to 16 percent. (Healthy People 2010)

  23. If we achieve our goals, the risk of a heart attack in older Americans will be reduced by 27 percent. (SHEP, 1991)

  24. If we achieve our goals, the risk of stroke in older Americans will be reduced by 36 percent. (SHEP, 1991)

  25. If we achieve our goals, the risk of heart failure in older Americans will be reduced by 54 percent. (SHEP, 1991)

  26. High blood pressure is the second leading cause of chronic kidney failure in the United States – responsible for 27 percent of all cases. (USRDS, 2004)

  27. Treating high blood pressure in older people can reduce the risk of heart attacks by 27 percent, averting 190,000 cases annually and providing annual savings of $1.9 billion. (NHLBI, 2004; SHEP, 1991)

  28. Treatment can also avert 180,000 strokes and 300,000 cases of heart failure annually, saving approximately $3.4 billion each year. (NHLBI, 2004; SHEP, 1991)

  29. High blood pressure causes more visits to doctors than any other condition, accounting for 48 million visits per year. (NAMCS, 2004)

  30. Even a 20 percent decline (in high blood pressure visits to doctors) would provide savings of $960 million. (MEPS, 2001; NAMCS, 2004)

  31. In 1998 alone, $109 billion – 12 percent of all diagnosis-specific spending – was spent on health care for high blood pressure and its complications, including $22 billion spent directly on high blood pressure. (Hodgson, 2001)

  32. We avert more than 665,000 cases of heart attack, stroke, and heart failure each year. (SHEP, 2001; NHLBI, 2004)

  33. Imagine how much illness could be prevented each year…By reducing heart failure cases (300,000); strokes (180,000), and heart attacks (190,000). (SHEP, 2001; NHLBI, 2004)

  34. Potential cost savings in stroke prevention: if we prevented 10 percent –- $500 million; if we prevented 20 percent -- $1 billion; if we prevented 30 percent -- $1.5 billion (NHLBI, 2004)

  35. Potential cost savings in preventing doctor visits for high blood pressure: if we prevented 10 percent -- $480 million; if we prevented 20 percent – $960 million; if we prevented 30 percent -- $1.4 billion. (MEPS, 2001; NAMCS, 2002; NHLBI, 2004)

back to top


Sources

American Heart Association. Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics – 2005 Update. Dallas, TX.
http://www.americanheart.org/downloadable/
heart/1105390918119HDSStats2005Update.pdf

Burt FL, Cutler JA, Higgins M et al. Trends in the prevalence, awareness, treatment and control of hypertension in the adult US population. Data from the Health Examination Surveys, 1960-1991. Hypertension. 1995; 26: 60-69.

Fields L, Burt V, Cutler J et al. The Burden of Adult Hypertension in the United States 1999 to 2000: A Rising Tide. Hypertension. 2004; 44:398.

Hedley AA, Ogden CL, Johnson CL et al. Prevalence of Overweight and Obesity Among US Children, Adolescents, and Adults, 1999-2002. JAMA. 2004;291:2847-2850

Hodgson TA, Cai L. Medical care expenditures for hypertension, its complications, and its comorbidities. Med Care. 2001 Jun;39(6):599-615.

Levy d, Larson M, Vasan R, et al. The progression from hypertension to congestive heart failure. JAMA. 1996; 275; 1557-1562.

Lewington S, Clarke R, Qizilbash N. Age-specific relevance of usual blood pressure to vascular mortality: A meta-analysis of individual data for one million adults in 61 prospective studies Collaboration. Lancet 2002;360:1903-13

Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS). 2001. Agency for Health Care Research and Quality (AHRQ), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. http://www.meps.ahrq.gov/

National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NAMCS), 2002 Summary. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics. Rockville, MD. 346. August 2004. http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/ad/ad346.pdf

National Diabetes Clearinghouse. A Service of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive Disease (NIDDK), NIH. National Diabetes Statistics, 2002.

http://diabetes.niddk.nih.gov/dm/pubs/statistics/index.htm#7

National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), National Institutes of Health. Bethesda, MD. Morbidity & Mortality: 2004 Chart Book on Cardiovascular, Lung, and Blood Diseases. May 2004. http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/resources/docs/cht-book.htm

National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), National Institutes of Health. Bethesda, MD. Unpublished estimates from pooled data from the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study (ARIC), Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS), and the Framingham Cohort and Offspring Studies. 2005.

National vital statistics reports; Vol 53, No 5. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics. 2004. Hyattsville, Maryland.
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr53/nvsr53_05acc.pdf

SHEP Cooperative Research Group. Prevention of stroke by antihypertensive drug treatment in older persons with isolated systolic hypertension. Final results of the Systolic Hypertension in the Elderly Program (SHEP).JAMA. 1991;265:3255-3264.

U.S. Census Bureau. Census 2000 Summary File 1.
http://www.census.gov/prod/2001pubs/c2kbr01-12.pdf

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. Healthy People 2010. http://www.healthypeople.gov/default.htm

U.S. Renal Data System, USRDS 2004 Annual Data Report: Atlas of End-Stage Renal Disease in the United States, National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, Bethesda, MD, 2004. http://www.usrds.org/default.htm

Vasan R, Beiser A, Seshadri S et al. Residual Lifetime Risk for Developing Hypertension in Middle-aged Women and Men: The Framingham Heart Study. JAMA. 2002; 287:1003-1010.

Vasan R, Larson M, Leip E, et al. Impact of High-Normal Blood Pressure on the Risk of Cardiovascular Disease. NEJM. 2001; 345: 1291-1297.

Vital statistics of the U.S. 2001. National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, US Department of Health and Human Services, Rockville, MD. http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss.htm

back to top

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services logo National Institutes of Health logo