Nearly half of adults have hypertension (119.9 million).The key facts shown in the Figure and Tables 1 and 2 include the following estimates for the US adult population:
1Ĭlinicians diagnose patients as having hypertension and make treatment decisions by comparing patients’ systolic and diastolic blood pressure readings to certain thresholds.Ĭurrent guidelines issued in 2017 by many organizations-including the American College of Cardiology (ACC) and American Heart Association (AHA)-define hypertension as blood pressure consistently at or above 130/80 mm Hg. Hypertension, also known as high blood pressure, increases the risk for heart disease and stroke, two leading causes of death in the United States.
