Patients with undiagnosed hypertension hiding in plain sight

摘要

According to the 2011-2012 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), a nationally representative, cross-sectional survey of the noninsti-tutionalized US population that combines interviews and physical examinations, 1 of 3 US adults (estimated at approximately 71 million people) has high blood pressure and almost half of these individuals (48.2%) do not have their blood pressure under control.1 Closer examination of the population with uncontrolled blood pressure reveals that 36.2% (estimated at approximately 13 million people) are neither aware of their hypertension nor taking antihypertensive medications.