Attainment of NICE blood pressure targets among older people with newly diagnosed hypertension: nationwide linked electronic health records cohort study

Background: it is not known if clinical practice reflects guideline recommendations for the management of hypertension in older people and whether guideline adherence varies according to overall health status.

Aims: to describe the proportion of older people attaining National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guideline blood pressure targets within 1 year of hypertension diagnosis and determine predictors of target attainment.

Methods: a nationwide cohort study of Welsh primary care data from the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage databank including patients aged ≥65 years newly diagnosed with hypertension between 1st June 2011 and 1st June 2016. The primary outcome was attainment of NICE guideline blood pressure targets as measured by the latest blood pressure recording up to 1 year after diagnosis. Predictors of target attainment were investigated using logistic regression.

Results: there were 26,392 patients (55% women, median age 71 [IQR 68–77] years) included, of which 13,939 (52.8%) attained a target blood pressure within a median follow-up of 9 months. Success in attaining target blood pressure was associated with a history of atrial fibrillation (OR 1.26, 95% CI 1.11, 1.43), heart failure (OR 1.25, 95% CI 1.06, 1.49) and myocardial infarction (OR 1.20, 95% CI 1.10, 1.32), all compared to no history of each, respectively. Care home residence, the severity of frailty, and increasing co-morbidity were not associated with target attainment following adjustment for confounder variables.

Conclusions: blood pressure remains insufficiently controlled 1 year after diagnosis in nearly half of older people with newly diagnosed hypertension, but target attainment appears unrelated to baseline frailty, multi morbidity or care home residence.