Does blood pressure lowering reduce the incidence of stroke, heart failure, CHD, and mortality in hypertensive patients?
This meta-analysis confirms that blood pressure lowering in hypertensive patients substantially reduces the risk of major cardiovascular events and mortality, with greater BP reductions yielding progressively greater risk reductions.
Meta-analyses of all BP-lowering RCTs involving hypertensive patients provide precise estimates of benefits (larger for stroke and heart failure, but also significant for CHD and mortality). Absolute risk reductions are substantial. Relationships of logarithmic risk ratios with BP reductions imply risk reduction increases progressively to a smaller extent the larger the BP reduction.
Thomopoulos et al. (2014) studied this question.