What is the potential impact of the 2017 ACC/AHA high blood pressure guideline in the US population?
A study by Muntner et al. (2018) estimated that the 2017 ACC/AHA high blood pressure guideline would potentially reduce the number of US adults with hypertension from 75 million to 59 million, resulting in a 21% relative reduction in the population prevalence of hypertension. Furthermore, the study estimated that more than 12 million fewer US adults would be prescribed antihypertensive medications and that this guideline would result in an estimated 5.4 million fewer cardiovascular events over a 10-year period, including 1.6 million fewer strokes and 3.8 million fewer coronary heart disease events.