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

Prevalence, awareness, treatment and control of hypertension were assessed in 1032 (90%) of 1147 elderly (greater than or equal to 65 years) inhabitan ts of three Italian villages. Blood pressure (BP) was measured at home on t wo separate occasions following a standardised protocol. Persons taking ant ihypertensive drugs or with BP values greater than or equal to 140/90 mm Hg were considered as affected by hypertension. Prevalence of hypertension wa s 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-trolled. Of the 230 unaware patients, 201 (87. 4%) had had their BP measured in the previous year. Of these, 174 (86.6%) h ad stage 1 hypertension, while 27 had stage 2 hypertension with SEP values <170 mm Hg, Overall, the patients with stage 1 hypertension accounted for 6 8.3% of the untreated and 50.5% of the treated patients. The use of a singl e drug was more frequent in patients with controlled (97.1%) or stage 1 (97 .0%) than with stages 2-3 (18.9%) hypertension, The drugs prescribed most w ere angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors (45%), followed by diure tics (43%), As our findings suggest that BP values can be effectively reduc ed by treating or increasing drug treatment in stage 1 hypertensive patient s, data on safety and effectiveness of this policy are urgently needed.