Pre-hypertension is a common phenomenon: national database study.
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.
Kitai
Eliezer
E
Department of Family Medicine, Leumit Health Services, Tel Aviv, Israel.
Vinker
Shlomo
S
Halperin
Lea
L
Meidan
Avraham
A
Grossman
Ehud
E
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