April 28, 2024

New Study: More Older Adults Should Be Doing This Simple Task

Routinely inspecting high blood pressure could play a crucial function in helping patients live longer and keep heart and brain health.
Only around half of the people with high blood pressure or conditions connected to high blood pressure regularly screen, but guidelines from health care experts encourage older grownups to do so in your home more typically.
According to a recent survey, just 48% of individuals in between the ages of 50 and 80 who utilize high blood pressure medications or have a medical condition that is impacted by hypertension frequently monitor their blood pressure in the house or elsewhere.
A rather higher percentage– still just 62%– claim that they were recommended to perform these tests by a health care expert. Participants who reported that their service providers had recommended them to monitor their high blood pressure in your home were three and a half times most likely to do so than those who did not remember receiving such advice.

Of them, 55% stated they own a blood pressure screen, though some stated they dont ever use it. Among those who do use it, there was broad variation in how often they checked their pressure– and only about half stated they share their readings with a health provider. Those who own a display were more than 10 times more most likely to check their blood pressure outside of health care settings than those who dont own one.

The outcomes highlight the significance of examining the causes of at-risk clients failure to inspect their blood pressure and the reasons doctor dont advise them to do so– as well as establishing strategies to encourage more people with these health conditions to do so on a regular basis. According to the authors of the research, this might be important in helping patients live longer and maintain their heart and brain health.
Previous research study has actually shown that regular house tracking of blood pressure may aid with control and that greater control can require a lower risk of mortality of cardiovascular events including strokes and cardiovascular disease; and of cognitive problems and dementia.
The findings are released in the journal JAMA Network Open by a group from Michigan Medicine, the University of Michigans scholastic medical. The data originate from the National Poll on Healthy Aging and develop on a report issued in 2015.
The survey, based at the U-M Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation and supported by Michigan Medicine and AARP, asked adults aged 50 to 80 about their persistent health conditions, high blood pressure tracking beyond center settings, and interactions with health suppliers about high blood pressure. Study authors Mellanie V. Springer, M.D., M.S., of the Michigan Medicine Department of Neurology, and Deborah Levine, M.D., M.P.H., of the Department of Internal Medicine, worked with the NPHA group to establish the survey questions and analyze the findings.
The data in the new paper come from the 1,247 respondents who said they were either taking a medication to control their blood pressure or had a chronic health condition that needs blood pressure control– specifically, a history of stroke, coronary heart disease, heart disease, diabetes, persistent kidney disease or hypertension.
Of them, 55% stated they own a high blood pressure monitor, though some said they dont ever use it. Amongst those who do use it, there was broad variation in how often they checked their pressure– and only about half stated they share their readings with a health provider. However those who own a screen were more than 10 times more likely to inspect their high blood pressure beyond health care settings than those who dont own one.
The authors keep in mind that blood pressure monitoring is related to lower high blood pressure and is cost-effective. They say that the outcomes suggest that procedures should be established to inform patients about the importance of self-blood pressure monitoring and sharing readings with clinicians.
Reference: “Prevalence and Frequency of Self-measured Blood Pressure Monitoring in United States Adults Aged 50-80 Years” by Mellanie V. Springer, MD, MS, Preeti Malani, MD, MSJ, Erica Solway, Ph.D., MSW, MPH, Matthias Kirch, MS, Dianne C. Singer, MPH, Jeffrey T. Kullgren, MD, MS, MPH and Deborah A. Levine, MD, MPH, 14 September 2022, JAMA Network Open.DOI: 10.1001/ jamanetworkopen.2022.31772.
The study was moneyed by the University of Michigan and the AARP..