Reference no: EM133815721

Question

Topic: Health Promotion/Education for Older Adults Aged ≥ 55 Living with HIV and Cardiovascular Risk in Meriden, Connecticut The prevalence of hypertension among people receiving HIV care in the United States was 42.4%, which is within the range of previously published estimates (13.0%-49.0%) . We found that about 1 in 8 patients had undiagnosed and untreated hypertension. Providers may be missing opportunities for diagnosing and treating hypertension among patients who are younger, male, uninsured, and recently incarcerated. As PLWH may be at increased risk for hypertension and its complications, including CVD, the importance of hypertension screening by providers, with the intent to effectively treat, cannot be overemphasized. While the proportion with hypertension was lowest among younger patients (aged 18-29 years), they were more than 4 times as likely to be undiagnosed and untreated as older patients (aged ≥50 years). Because young PLWH are least likely to be virally suppressed [11], it is possible that providers are more focused on attaining viral suppression than addressing comorbidities, such as hypertension, in this group. With PLWH living longer lives because of highly active antiretroviral therapy [12], younger patients with undiagnosed and untreated hypertension potentially have many years.