One in Four U.S. Adults had High Blood Pressure in 2008

Newswise, March 4, 2011 — More than 59 million Americans age 18 and older were diagnosed with high blood pressure in 2008, according to the latest News and Numbers from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

AHRQ also found that in 2008:

• Three-quarters of people diagnosed with high blood pressure were overweight, obese, or morbidly obese. Roughly 15 percent of healthy weight adults were diagnosed with high blood pressure.

• Adults who exercised vigorously for 30 minutes or more at least three times a week were one-third less likely than those who didn’t to have reported having high blood pressure (21 percent versus 32 percent, respectively).

• Nearly 32 percent of black adults reported having high blood pressure, compared to 27 percent of white and 18 percent of Hispanic adults.

• Roughly 29 percent of adults less than 65 years old with public health insurance reported having high blood pressure, versus 19 percent with private insurance and 14 percent of the uninsured.

• Almost 59 percent of seniors age 65 and older reported having been told they had high blood pressure, compared to nearly 34 percent of people ages 45 to 64, 10 percent of those ages 25 to 44, and almost 3 percent of younger adults.

AHRQ, which is part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, improves the quality, safety, efficiency, and effectiveness of health care for all Americans. The data in this AHRQ News and Numbers summary are taken from the Household and Pharmacy Components of the 2008 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS), a detailed source of information on the health services used by Americans, the frequency with which they are used, the cost of those services, and how they are paid.