Control of hypertension disrupted during the pandemic: study
Large US study shows some health services handled patient care better than others, researcher says
Pandemic disruption to preventive medicine has been underlined by data showing a dip in blood pressure control, US researchers say.
The Mayo Clinic study across 24 US health systems was reported to delegates to the American Heart Association Scientific Sessions 2021 virtual meeting.
While 60.5% of patients had their blood pressure under control in 2019 (defined as being below 140mmHg systolic BP and below 90mmHg diastolic BP), this fell to 53.3% of patients in 2020.
Similar results were seen for patients achieving BP below 130/80mmHg, epidemiologist Dr Alanna Chamberlain said.
