Dramatic rise in high blood pressure contributes to many U.S. deaths

the Oncology Nurse Advisor take:

Deaths related to high blood pressure have sharply risen over the last 13 years, according to recent data from the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics.

In the CDC’s report, hypertension-related deaths was found to have increased by 61.8 percent from 2000 to 2013, and the rate of incidence rose for both sexes aged 45 or older.

The researchers, who pulled their data from national cause-of-death files, counted any mention of hypertension on death certificates as a hypertension-related death.

Overall, one out of six hypertension-related deaths was due to high blood pressure as the underlying cause.

However, the report also found that the proportion of deaths where heart disease was the underlying cause of death had dropped by about 6 percent, while those with stroke as an underlying cause dropped by about 5 percent. High blood pressure was still a contributing factor to other deaths.

Deaths as a result of heart disease, stroke, cancer, and diabetes that mentioned hypertension in certificates made up 65 percent of counted deaths in 2000, and 54 percent of those in 2013.