Elderly hypertensive patients: are they adequately treated?

To better understand the scope and importance of hypertension in elderly persons, we analysed 551 outpatients, > or = 65 years of age. Arterial BP values > 160 mmHg systolic or 90 mmHg diastolic were documented in 233 cases (42.29% of total). Among this hypertensive group of patients, 174 of them (74.68%) were chronic cases and 59 patients (25.32%) were newly diagnosed. Only 39 of the 174 chronic patients were receiving adequate treatment (22.41%), 87 patients were not receiving any treatment (50%) and 40 others lacked information about previous treatments (23%). Apart from the 35 patients (15.02%) who were treated with salt-restricted diet only, we prescribed antihypertensive drugs to all the remaining 198 patients (84.98%): diuretics (41.92%), calcium antagonists (33.33%), beta-blockers (17.86%), ACE inhibitors (15.66%) and various other drugs (8.1%), with good patient compliance and minimal side-effects. Of the 233 hypertensive patients, 64.81%, had accompanying health problems such as cerebrovascular disease (17.95%), diabetes (16.67%), coronary artery disease (16.24%) and cancer (7.27%). It is concluded that hypertension among the elderly is an important and underestimated part of an already complicated health picture of this expanding population of modern society.