A recent study published in the journal JAMA Network Open found that less than half of older Americans with high blood pressure (hypertension) check their blood pressure regularly, The Washington Post reports.
Despite the fact that most of them (62 percent) reported that their physician had encouraged them to do home monitoring, this was still the case. The lack of symptoms of high blood pressure can lead to serious health problems, which makes testing all the more important.
A nationally representative sample of 2,023 people ages 50 to 80 was used in the University of Michigan‘s ongoing National Poll on Healthy Aging. The majority of participants had high blood pressure only, while others had diabetes, heart disease, heart failure, or kidney disease.