High blood pressure awareness, control improved with better access to primary health care: Better access to primary health care was associated with improved high blood pressure awareness and control
Having easier access to primary care physicians may increase high blood pressure awareness and control regardless of where a person lives, according to new research published today in Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Heart Association.
According to the American Heart Association, nearly half of all Americans have hypertension (high blood pressure), and many don’t even know they have it. High blood pressure is often called the “silent killer” because high blood pressure often has no obvious symptoms. The best ways to protect yourself are to be aware of the risks and make healthy life changes that matter.
In a new study, researchers note that health care professionals at community clinics and primary care practices may help expand awareness and detection of high blood pressure by providing affordable treatment and management. High blood pressure is a leading preventable risk factor for cardiovascular disease, and effective blood pressure control reduces the associated cardiovascular health risks.
“Access to primary care is the key to hypertension management, however, many Americans have limited access to primary care where they live. This is especially true of people in economically disadvantaged neighborhoods or people from diverse racial and ethnic groups, particularly among African American individuals,” said senior study author Brisa Aschebrook-Kilfoy, Ph.D., an associate professor of public health sciences at the University of Chicago in Illinois.
It is well known that better access to primary health care is linked to improved high blood pressure awareness and control. This study sought to clarify if people living in disadvantaged neighborhoods may benefit from better access to primary care health professionals.
In this study, neighborhood socioeconomic status was assessed using the Area Deprivation Index (ADI) created by the Health Resources & Services Administration (HRSA) over three decades ago. The ADI was chosen because it allows for rankings of neighborhoods by socioeconomic disadvantage in a region of interest (e.g., at the state or national level), and it is valuable to inform health delivery and policy, especially for the most disadvantaged neighborhood groups. ADI is composed of 17 indicators covering income, education, employment and housing quality. In this study, socioeconomically disadvantaged neighborhoods were defined as those in census tracts ranked in the 50th percentile and above.
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