One-Quarter of US Adults Had Hypertension in 2008

The mascot for hypertension.

Yet another set of numbers has been published exposing the soaring rates of hypertension in America, this time from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) [1].

In a statistical brief released last night, using data from the 2008 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey, William Carroll writes that 59 million Americans age 18 and older--over one-quarter of the adult US population--have been told by a healthcare provider that they have hypertension.

The AHRQ report comes within weeks of two Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports also looking at hypertension prevalence in the US: one noted that the prevalence of hypertension has been increasing among men and women over age 45 but remaining stable in adults in the 20- to 44-year age group; the other noting that hypertension is uncontrolled in more than half of US adults with the disease.

The AHRQ reports that:

...Increasing body weight, increased stress levels, and reduced activity levels were all associated with increased likelihood of a hypertension diagnosis.

One-quarter of all overweight adults and half of all morbidly obese adults had been diagnosed with hypertension, as compared with 15% of normal-weight adults.

Oinker-tension.