Assessment of achieved systolic blood pressure in newly treated hypertensive patients aged 60-79 years before and after Eighth Joint National Committee recommendations.

OBJECTIVE To determine whether patients who were newly prescribed antihypertensive therapy after the Eighth Joint National Committee (JNC 8) update were treated to a relaxed systolic blood pressure (SBP) goal compared with patients treated before the update. METHODS A retrospective cohort study approved by the Colorado Multiple Institutional Review Board. Patients aged 60-79 years, without diabetes or chronic kidney disease (CKD), newly treated for hypertension at a University of Colorado primary care clinics were included. The mean first-achieved and last-stable SBPs of patients newly prescribed antihypertensive medications from 1 January 2012 to 31 December 31 2013 (before cohort) were compared with patients newly prescribed antihypertensive therapy from 1 January 2014 to 1 October 2015 (after cohort). The mean number of antihypertensive medications at first-achieved SBP, the time to first-achieved SBP, and the class of initial antihypertensive medications were also evaluated. RESULTS A total of 128 patients were included, 64 patients in each cohort. The coprimary outcome of first-achieved mean SBP did not differ between the groups (131.3 mmHg versus 130.2 mmHg; p = 0.65). Last-stable mean SBP values were also similar between the groups (130.2 mmHg versus 129.5 mmHg; p = 0.74). Angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors (ACE-I) were the most frequently initiated antihypertensive agent in both cohorts (43.8% versus 48.4%; p = 0.72). CONCLUSIONS Our findings suggest that the JNC 8 recommendations did not alter SBP goals among patients aged 60-79 years newly treated for hypertension at University of Colorado primary care clinics.