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Prevalence and determinants of controlled hypertension in a German population cohort

Neeltje van den Berg1, Claudia Meinke-Franze, Thomas Fiss

  • 1University Medicine Greifswald, Institute for Community Medicine Ellernholzstrasse 1-2, 17487, Greifswald, Germany. neeltje.vandenberg@uni-greifswald.de.

BMC Public Health
|June 21, 2013
PubMed

Insights

Hypertension treatment and blood pressure control are low in Germany. Combination therapy improves outcomes, but many patients still don't reach target blood pressure levels.

Area of Science:

  • Cardiology
  • Public Health
  • Epidemiology

Background:

  • Analysis of the German population-based cohort SHIP (Study of Health in Pomerania).
  • Examined hypertension treatment rates, prescribed antihypertensive medications, and blood pressure control in the German population.
  • Investigated determinants of achieving target blood pressure values.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To assess the prevalence of hypertension treatment and the proportion of hypertensive individuals achieving target blood pressure values.
  • To identify factors influencing blood pressure control in the German population.
  • To evaluate the effectiveness of antihypertensive therapies, including combination therapy.

Main Methods:

  • Utilized baseline data (1997-2001) and 5-year follow-up data (2002-2006) from the SHIP cohort.
  • Included participants with elevated blood pressure (≥140/90 mmHg) or risk-comorbidities (e.g., diabetes, stroke) with blood pressure ≥130/80 mmHg.
  • Employed logistic regression to identify determinants of normotensive blood pressure.

Main Results:

  • Included 3278 participants with hypertension (mean age 55.5 years); raw prevalence was 50.9%.
  • 58.7% of hypertensive patients received antihypertensive treatment, with 65.1% on combination therapy.
  • Only 42.1% of patients without risk-comorbidities and 21.7% with risk-comorbidities reached target blood pressure values. Female sex and combination therapy were positive determinants, while increasing age, risk-comorbidities, and obesity were negative determinants.

Conclusions:

  • Low rates of antihypertensive therapy and achievement of target blood pressure values were observed in the German population.
  • Combination therapy showed better blood pressure control compared to monotherapy.
  • Even with combination therapy, only 36% of hypertensive patients achieved target blood pressure values.
Abstract

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