Potential Impact of 2017 American College of Cardiology / American Heart Association High Blood Pressure Guideline on Chinese Adults---How to Face?

Background The current analysis was to estimate the percentage and number of Chinese adults with hypertension and recommended for pharmacological anti-hypertensive treatment according to the 2017 American College of Cardiology / American Heart Association (ACC/AHA) guideline as compared with the 2010 Chinese Guideline.Methods We used the 2011 data of China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS). 12,499 Chinese adults aged ≥ 18 years with complete blood pressure (BP) values were selected for the present analysis.Results The crude prevalence (95% CI) of hypertension according to the definitions from 2017 ACC/AHA guideline and the 2010 Chinese guideline was 58.0% (57.2% to 58.9%) and 25.4% (24.7% to 26.2%), respectively. Meanwhile, the percentage of recommended anti-hypertensive medications was 31.5% and 28.8%. Among adults who taking anti-hypertensive medications, the percentage of which had above goal BP level was 88.8% compared to 53.3%. Overall, 613.3 million Chinese adults (aged ≥ 18 years) met the definition for hypertension according to the 2017 ACC/AHA guideline, for which was 267.7 million according to the 2010 Chinese guideline. An additional 28.4 million (2.7%) Chinese adults were recommended anti-hypertensive medication.Conclusions The present analysis revealed that 2017 ACC/AHA hypertension guideline will result in a substantial increase in the percentage and number of Chinese adults defined as having hypertension and a small increase in the percentage of adults who are recommended anti-hypertensive medications compared to the 2010 Chinese guideline. More intensive management and anti-hypertensive medications are suggested to improve the control rate of hypertension among Chinese adults.