To see the prevalence of hypertension rates on the level of different states in the US, a study was recently conducted was evaluated during of the recent studies conducted by Majid Ezzati, Ph.D., lead author of the study and associate professor of International Health at the ‘Harvard School of Public Health’, Boston.

He found variation in the rates across the country however seeing the worst uncontrolled hypertension rates especially in the south and including the nation’s capital; he recommended special control efforts to regulate the blood pressure associated problems.

However, this study does not provide any data regarding how individual states measure up when it comes to hypertension prevalence. They could take in account only the self reported hypertension status.

During the study, they derived from the survey done by the national health and nutrition examination that there has been a gradual fall in the declining rate of the prevalence of hypertension rates for the decades up to the 1990s.

There has been seen in stagnation in this downfall among the US men and the result was more alarming in the case of women, where the hypertension rates were found to be increasing after 1990s. Between the early 1990s and early 2000s, there is a downfall of prevalence of uncontrolled hypertension in men from 19 percent to 17 percent and it increased from 17 percent to more than 22 percent among the adult women.

The next level of the research was to study the prevalence of this problem at the state level. They found worse conditions in few states as compared to others like District of Columbia and in the Southern states of Mississippi, South Carolina Alabama, Louisiana, Texas, and Georgia whereas lower hypertension prevalence rates were found in the states of Minnesota, New Hampshire, Vermont, Iowa, Connecticut and Colorado. Idaho and Oregon were the worst performing states for the women and Washington, D.C., and Mississippi were found to the best performing states. For men, the lowest decline was seen in the states of New Mexico and Louisiana and faster in Vermont and Indiana.

This study attempted to study the prevalence of hypertension rates on the level of states by using the existing information and also devise the better life saving mechanism in individual states by controlling the blood pressure. However it doesn’t provide any clue to the reason behind these differences. According to them, these differences could be attributed to the provision of better health facilities available in few states than others.

Ezzati says that it is disheartening to see the alarming rates at which the risks associated with hypertension is increasing, especially when this condition can be simply controlled by life style, diet and medication. So these states could be focused on while deciding the health infrastructure at the nation’s level. It tries to spread alertness among the Public health officials, policy makers, health professionals, and the American public.