Abstract P347: How Did Another 30% of Americans Develop High Blood Pressure Overnight? An Analysis of the New AHA/ACC Blood Pressure Guidelines and Their Impact in Communities Across the Country

Abstract

According to data from retail blood pressure kiosks, almost one-third of Americans just moved into the hypertensive category, roughly doubling its size. National costs of hypertension treatment were already estimated at $40-50B, so understanding the detailed impact of this development is important for healthcare providers, payors, and policymakers alike. We leverage the 42,614,330 blood pressure readings that took place across the national network of 11K+ higi health kiosks in 2017 to study the effect of the new guidelines on both macro and micro (i.e. zip code) levels, and within sub-populations of interest. We find that new blood pressure guidelines do not impact all states, or all communities within a given metro area, equally. (It’s also not the case that size of impact positively correlates with rate of high blood pressure under the old guidelines - i.e. healthy populations often see greater impact.) Furthermore, the guidelines affect certain cohorts of patients differently than others. This study identifies the communities and cohorts that pose the blood pressure greatest risk post-2017.