Mortality rates from high blood pressure have been rising since at least 2003, according to a study published Aug. 27 in JAMA.
To evaluate mortality rates due to cardiometabolic diseases, researchers used death certificates from the CDC's Wide-Ranging Online Data for Epidemiologic Research for the period from Jan. 1, 1999, to Dec. 31, 2017. They specifically studied age-adjusted death rates from heart disease, stroke, diabetes and hypertension, and they compared data between genders and races (black and white only).
They found hypertension mortality rates increased as early as 2003 and increased less rapidly thereafter. In contrast, mortality rates for heart disease declined: before 2010, heart disease deaths decreased by 8.3 fewer deaths per 100,000 people per year. After 2010, heart disease deaths declined by 1.8 fewer deaths per 100,000 people per year. Stroke and diabetes deaths declined until 2010 and then had no significant changes.
The study also found racial disparities in death rates for each cardiometabolic condition. Black individuals had consistently higher overall death rates compared to whites, and black men had the highest death rates for all causes of death included in the study.