Blood pressure control among Veterans with high cardiovascular disease risk

Abstract: Objective: Blood pressure (BP) control reduces risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD), the major cause of disability and mortality among the nine million U.S. Veterans receiving care in Veterans Affairs (VA) medical centers. This study examined BP control, defined as a systolic BP < 130 mmHg and diastolic BP < 80 mmHg, among U.S. Veterans with hypertension at high risk for primary or secondary CVD events. Methods: We utilized data from the VA Informatics and Computing Infrastructure Corporate Data Warehouse on primary care visits within the eight Great Lakes VA medical centers for Veterans with at least one visit between January 1, 2019, and February 28, 2020 and a documented visit within the 12 months prior to study initiation date. Analyses focused on Veterans with diagnosed hypertension and one or more of the following: age ≥65 years, and/or diagnosis of CVD, diabetes mellitus (DM) or chronic kidney disease (CKD). BP control was based on the last recorded BP measurement during the study period. Results: The mean age of 83,633 Veterans with hypertension was 71.6 years (10.4) years, 96.4 % were male and race/ethnicity was reported as non-Hispanic White in 74.8 %, non-Hispanic Black or African American in 18.4 %, non-Hispanic Asian in 0.3 %, Alaskan Indian or Pacific Islander in 2.6 % and Hispanic in 2.5 %. Mean SBP and DBP based on vital signs at the last clinic visit were 130.8 mmHg (standard deviation [SD] 11.6) and 73.7 mmHg (SD 8.8), respectively. Overall, BP was controlled to < 130/80 mmHg in 38.7 % (95 % Confidence Interval [CI] 38.4, 39.1) and <140/90 mmHg in 76.9 % (95 % CI 76.7, 77.2). Among subgroups, BP was controlled to < 130/80 mmHg in 39.8 % (95 % CI 39.4, 40.2) of the Veterans aged ≥65 years, 45.3 % (95 % CI 44.7, 45.9) with CVD, 39.8 % (95 % CI 39.2, 40.3) with DM, 42.8 % (95 % CI 41.9, 43.6) with CKD and 47.1 % (95 % CI 45.5, 48.6) with CVD +DM +CKD. In contrast, BP control <140/90 mmHg was noted in over 75 % of Veterans within all subgroups. Conclusion: In this group of Veterans with hypertension and high risk for CVD events, less than half had BP controlled to < 130/80 mmHg. Future studies should investigate strategies to improve BP control such as team-based care with home BP monitoring, education of clinicians on hypertension management, and increased utilization of automated office BP.