News - Hypertension Week of August 31, 2003/ Vol. 2 No. 35

Study: Many High Blood Pressure Patients Can't Cite Their Own Numbers Or Targets

Patient knowledge and awareness of hypertension are important factors in achieving blood pressure control, but a study reported in the August issue of the Journal of Clinical Hypertension finds that they are sorely lacking.

Researchers at Kaiser Permanente examined patients' knowledge of their condition by randomly surveying 2,500 hypertension patients from a large health maintenance organization. About 72 percent of the subjects completed surveys.

Of patients with uncontrolled hypertension (equal to or greater than 140/90), only 20.2 percent labeled their blood pressure as "high" and only 38.4 percent thought it was "borderline high".

Forty percent of respondents could not recall their most recently measured blood pressure numbers, while 71.7 percent did not know what their target blood pressure numbers should be. Most patients also incorrectly perceived diastolic blood pressure to be a more important risk factor than systolic blood pressure.

The researchers concluded that hypertensive patients are "suboptimal" in their awareness of their own blood pressure and noted that improvements are needed in patient education for better management of hypertension.

Journal of Clinical Hypertension 2003 Jul-Aug;5(4):254-60