Hypertension in the elderly

Abstract

Data collected over a 30-year period have demonstrated the increasing prevalence of hypertension with age. Aging is an inevitable part of life and brings along two inconvenient events: physiologic decline and disease state. High blood pressure (HBP) is an important risk factor for cardiovascular morbidity and mortality, particularly in the elderly. It is a significant and often asymptomatic chronic disease, which requires optimal control and persistent adherence to prescribed medication to reduce the risks of cardiovascular, cerebrovascular and renal disease. Hypertension in the elderly patients represents a management dilemma to geriatric and cardiovascular specialists and other practitioners. Furthermore, with the wide adoption of multiple drug strategies targeting subgroups of hypertensive patients with specific risk conditions to lower blood pressure (BP), difficult questions arise about how aggressive treatment of elderly patients should be. The purpose of the following chapter article is to review the pathophysiology of aging as well as the epidemiology and the clinical assessment of high blood pressure (HBP) in older people.