Blood Pressure Control Improved from 1999 to 2008 but Declined Substantially by 2018

Major educational campaigns led to improvements in blood pressure (BP) control from the late 1980s to 2010. In this study, investigators used data from a U.S. national population-based survey of adults for 2-year cycles from 1999–2000 through 2017–2018. In each participant who self-identified as having hypertension, the researchers recorded the mean of three BP measurements and defined “control” as systolic BP <140 mm Hg and diastolic BP <90 mm Hg.

Age-adjusted prevalence of hypertension was roughly 30% during the 20-year study. The proportion of participants with controlled BP improved from 32% in 1999–2000 to 49% in 2007–2008 and remained stable at ≈50% through 2015–2016; in 2017–2018, the proportion dropped to 44%. In the last two study c…