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Background: Reducing blood pressure (BP) is important for decreasing cardiovascular disease risk among adults with diabetes. Individuals with diabetes are recommended to know their BP level and BP goal. Methods: We used data from the 2013-2020 National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (NHANES) for US adults with diabetes (N=2,344). Diabetes was defined as having a prior diagnosis with use of insulin or glucose-lowering medication. Participants with diabetes were asked their most recent BP and their goal BP according to their doctor. Hypertension was defined as systolic/diastolic BP ≥140/90 mm Hg or self-reported antihypertensive medication use. Poisson regression with robust variance estimation was used to estimate associations of participant characteristics with knowing their recent BP level and BP goal for those without hypertension and with hypertension, separately. All analyses accounted for the NHANES complex survey design and were weighted to represent US adults with diabetes. Results: Among US adults with diabetes, 69.8% reported that they knew their recent BP level and 41.5% reported they knew their BP goal. Among those without hypertension and with hypertension, 58.7% and 75.5% reported knowing their recent BP level and 27.5% and 48.5%, respectively, reported knowing their BP goal, respectively. Among adults without hypertension and those with hypertension, non-Hispanic Black or Hispanic versus non-Hispanic White adults, with less than high school education, and without insurance were less likely to know their recent BP ( Table ). Hispanic versus non-Hispanic White adults without hypertension and adults with less than a high school education with hypertension were less likely to know their BP goal. Conclusion: Low percentages of US adults with diabetes knew their BP level and knew their BP goal.
Poudel et al. (Tue,) studied this question.