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[Health insurance and hypertension. Review of current data]
Insights
Medical insurance data significantly underestimates hypertensive disease prevalence. Accounting for complications reveals a higher detection rate, highlighting the need for comprehensive hypertension assessment.
Area of Science:
- Cardiology
- Public Health
- Health Economics
Context:
- Medical insurance data provides an incomplete picture of hypertensive disease.
- Clinical examinations and invalidity assessments in 1976 identified a limited number of hypertensive patients.
- Hypertensive disease complications are not typically labeled as such in these statistics.
Purpose:
- To evaluate the true prevalence of hypertensive disease by incorporating complication data.
- To estimate the medico-economic profile of hypertensive patients, focusing on age.
Summary:
- Medical insurance statistics from 1976 underestimated hypertension prevalence.
- By including estimated complications, the total detected hypertensive patients rose to 99,318 (0.25% of the covered population).
- A study of 130 male hypertensives in Paris aimed to define the age-related medico-economic profile.
Impact:
- Highlights the underestimation of hypertensive disease by traditional insurance data collection methods.
- Suggests a need for more inclusive diagnostic criteria for hypertension within insurance frameworks.
- Provides insights into the demographic and economic characteristics of hypertensive individuals.
Abstract:
Medical insurance gives a very incomplete view of the spectrum of hypertensive disease, based only on the results of clinical examination of persons undergoing check-ups in the Medical Examination Centres: 39 850 in 1976, or on those examined by consulting physicians according to article L293: 23 308 in 1976, or being examined for invalidity allowance: 11 471 in 1976. The complications of hypertension do not appear in these statistics under the label of hypertension. They have been estimated and, when taken into account, increase the total number of hypertensive patients detected in 1976 by the Medical Insurance to 99 318, that is to say 0,25% of the covered population. An inquiry carried out on 130 male hypertensives in the Paris region tends to approach the medico-economic profile of the hypertensive patient with respect to age.