Prevalence, Awareness, Treatment, and Control of Hypertension in United States Counties, 2001-2009

Hypertension is an important and modifiable risk factor for cardiovascular disease and mortality. Over the last decade, national-levels of controlled hypertension have increased, but little information on hypertension prevalence and trends in hypertension treatment and control exists at the county-level. We estimate trends in prevalence, awareness, treatment, and control of hypertension in US counties using data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) in five two-year waves from 1999-2008 including 26,349 adults aged 30 years and older and from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) from 1997-2009 including 1,283,722 adults aged 30 years and older. Hypertension was defined as systolic blood pressure (BP) of at least 140 mm Hg, self-reported use of antihypertensive treatment, or both. Hypertension control was defined as systolic BP less than 140 mm Hg. The median prevalence of total hypertension in 2009 was estimated at 37.6% (range: 26.5 to 54.4%) in men and 40.1% (range: 28.5 to 57.9%) in women. Within-state differences in the county prevalence of uncontrolled hypertension were as high as 7.8 percentage points in 2009. Awareness, treatment, and control was highest in the southeastern US, and increased between 2001 and 2009 on average. The median county-level control in men was 57.7% (range: 43.4 to 65.9%) and in women was 57.1% (range: 43.0 to 65.46%) in 2009, with highest rates in white men and black women. While control of hypertension is on the rise, prevalence of total hypertension continues to increase in the US. Concurrent increases in treatment and control of hypertension are promising, but efforts to decrease the prevalence of hypertension are needed.