Hypertension Prevalence, Awareness, Treatment, and Control Among Adults Aged ≥18 Years — Los Angeles County, 1999–2006 and 2007–2014

Hypertension is an important and common risk factor for heart disease and stroke, two of the leading causes of death in adults in the United States.Despite considerable improvement in increasing the awareness, treatment, and control of hypertension, undiagnosed and uncontrolled hypertension remain public health challenges (1).Data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) were used to estimate the prevalence of hypertension, as well as awareness, treatment, and control of hypertension among adults aged ≥18 years in Los Angeles County compared with adults aged ≥18 years in the United States during 1999-2006 and 2007-2014.During 2007-2014, the prevalence of hypertension was 23.1% among adults in Los Angeles County, lower than the prevalence of 29.6% among all U.S. adults.Among adults with hypertension in Los Angeles County, substantial improvements from 1999-2006 to 2007-2014 were found in hypertension awareness (increase from 73.8% to 84.6%), treatment (61.3% to 77.2%), and control (28.5% to 48.3%).Similar improvements were also seen among all U.S. adults.Although the prevalence of hypertension among adults in Los Angeles County meets the Healthy People 2020 (https://www. healthypeople.gov/)goal of ≤26.9%, continued progress is needed to meet the Healthy People 2020 goal of ≥61.2% for control of hypertension.NHANES is a cross-sectional survey designed to monitor the health and nutritional status of the civilian noninstitutionalized U.S. population, and is conducted continuously in 2-year cycles.The NHANES sample is based on a complex, multistage probability design that includes oversampling of particular population subgroups to obtain reliable estimates for these groups.During 1999-2006, Mexican Americans, and during 2007-2014, all Hispanics (including Mexican Americans) were among the subgroups oversampled.Because of the size and population density of Los Angeles County and the large Mexican American/Hispanic population, Los Angeles County is a primary sampling unit that was selected with certainty in each 2-year NHANES cycle and weights were calculated to match the population totals for Los Angeles County (2,3).Data were aggregated over 1999-2006 and 2007-2014 to provide adequate sample size for Los Angeles County.All prevalences were estimated using the examined sample, for which the overall NHANES response rate was 77.3% during 1999-2006 and 72.6% during 2007-2014.* NHANES examination methodology and analytic guidelines available at https://wwwn.cdc.gov/nchs/nhanes/Default.aspx.† Awareness of hypertension was determined by an affirmative response to the question "Have you ever been told by a doctor or health professional that you had hypertension, also called high blood pressure?"Treatment for hypertension was defined based on affirmative responses to the following questions: "Because of your high blood pressure/hypertension, have you ever been told to take prescribed medicine?"and "Are you now following this advice to take prescribed medicine?"