ISLAMABAD, APRIL 24 (ONLINE): Adequate treatment of high blood pressure (BP) can substantially lower the risk for dementia or cognitive impairment without dementia, new data indicated.
In a large study of Chinese adults with untreated hypertension, intensive BP management through medication and lifestyle changes cut the risk for dementia by 15% and cognitive impairment without dementia by 16% over 4 years.
“Our study is one of the first large-scale randomized controlled effectiveness trials to demonstrate a significant reduction in all-cause dementia associated with lowering BP,” lead author Jiang He, MD, PhD, with Department of Epidemiology, UT Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, and colleagues wrote.
Past research had shown a strong link between untreated hypertension and cognitive problems in older adults. “However, definitive evidence supporting BP reduction for the primary prevention of dementia in hypertensive patients remains insufficient,” investigators noted.
In the China Rural Hypertension Control Project Phase-3 (CRHCP-3), researchers assessed the effectiveness of an intensive BP intervention (vs usual care) in reducing the risk for dementia among 33,995 adults aged 40 years or older with uncontrolled hypertension. This cluster-randomized trial was conducted in 326 villages in three provinces in China.
In the intervention group, trained nonphysician community healthcare providers initiated and titrated antihypertensive medications according to a simple stepped-care protocol to achieve a systolic BP (SBP) goal < 130 mm Hg and a diastolic BP (DBP) goal < 80 mm Hg, with supervision from primary care physicians.
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