title: Pre-hypertension is a common phenomenon: national database study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Recently the Joint National Committee (7th report) introduced the term "pre-hypertension." Little is known on its prevalence in the general population.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To assess the prevalence of pre-hypertension in a large national cohort.
  
  
  METHODS
  We analyzed the database of all > or = 18 year old members of Leumit Health Services, one of the four health management organizations in Israel, from which we retrieved the recorded blood pressure levels. Pre-hypertension was defined according to the JNC-7 criteria.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Of the 426,033 subjects 18.6% had a diagnosis of hypertension or used antihypertensive medications. Only 40.8% of the other 346,799 subjects had had their BP measured in the preceding 2 years. BP recording rates were higher in females than in males (45.1% vs. 36.3%) and higher in elderly subjects than in young subjects (56% aged 66-75 years vs. 32% aged 18-25). Pre-hypertension was observed in 80,625 (23.2%) of the 346,799 while only 56,113 (16.2%) had normal BP records. The prevalence of pre-hypertension increased with age (13.3% aged 18-25 vs. 44.8% aged 66-75), and was more prevalent in men than in women (24.0% vs. 22.5%).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  BP levels among young people are low, even though the prevalence of pre-hypertension in this population may be high. Thus, more emphasis should be given to routine BP measurements and confirmation of the findings in all age groups.
authors.affiliation: Department of Family Medicine, Leumit Health Services, Tel Aviv, Israel.
authors.forename: Eliezer
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Kitai
authors.forename: Shlomo
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Vinker
authors.forename: Lea
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Halperin
authors.forename: Avraham
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Meidan
authors.forename: Ehud
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Grossman
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D017677:Age Distribution; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D016208:Databases, Factual; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology*; D007557:Israel / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015995:Prevalence; D012307:Risk Factors; D017678:Sex Distribution