1Associate Professor, Department of Cardiology, MKCG Medical College, Berhampur, Ganjam, Odisha, India
2Associate Professor, Department of Cardiology, IMS and SUM hospital, Siksha “O” Anusandhan University, K8, Kalinganagar, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India
3Assistant Professor, Directorate of Medical Research, IMS and SUM hospital, Siksha “O” Anusandhan University, K8, Kalinganagar, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India
*Corresponding author: Dr. Suresh Kumar Behera Associate Professor, Department of Cardiology, IMS and SUM Hospital, Bhubaneswar. Email: surebehera@yahoo.co.in
Online published on 9 January, 2019.
It is unknown to what extent General Practitioners (GPs) manage hypertension (HT) differently in older patients, as compared to younger age groups. The purpose of our study was to know the incidence of hypertension in older patients as compare to younger age groups.
It this retrospective observational study the data of hypertension patients attending at MKCG medical college and IMS and SUM Hospital were documented and analyzed. The study population consisted of all patients aged 60 years or older with at least one blood pressure (BP) measurement during the inclusion period, without pre-existent HT, diabetes mellitus (DM) or atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease at time of study start.
We included 19, 500 patients from 159 GP's practices of whom 1, 181 (6.1%) were newly diagnosed with HT. Corrected for age-adjusted SBP, older patients were less likely to be diagnosed with HT (odds ratio per year age increase 0.98, p < 0.001). Corrected for age-adjusted SBP, no significant effect of age on the probability of treatment in newly diagnosed HT patients was observed (p = 0.82).
This study showed that GPs are less inclined to diagnose HT with increasing patient age, but do not withhold treatment when they diagnose HT in older patients.
Hypertension, Aged 80 and over, Age factors, Electronic health records, General practice
