Hypertension Risk Prediction

Abstract

Hypertension has been recognized for decades as a major predictor of adverse outcomes, including stroke, heart failure, end-stage renal disease, heart disease, and peripheral vascular disease. These disease risk estimates are the key components for the development and implementation of prevention, treatment, and control guidelines with a general theme of lower blood pressure levels associated with less adverse events.1 The public health burden from high blood pressure and the process to design interventions are further complicated by the high proportion of the population affected (≈1 in 3 adults), a linear increase with age, and disproportionally higher rates for segments of the population, such as blacks and Hispanics.2 Changes in awareness, treatment, and control of hypertension can be assessed and monitored in the population with a series of cross-sectional observational studies. Although these prevalence rates can be determined from single measurements in time, hypertension management and prevention strategies are dependent on incidence rates and the disease progression. These evidence-based guidelines are dependent on incidence and progression rates of …