Nearly 25 Million U.S. Women Treated for High Blood Pressure

AHRQ News and Numbers, May 7 2009

Approximately 25 million women in the United States—most over the age of 45—were treated for high blood pressure in 2006, making it the most common condition for which women sought treatment, according to the latest News and Numbers from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).

The statistical analysis by AHRQ found that the other most common diseases for which women sought treatment in 2006 by age group, included:

• Women age 65 and older: hyperlipidemia, fat build up in the blood (7.1 million); osteoarthritis (5.9 million); heart disease (5.7 million); and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and asthma (5.5 million).
• Women aged 45 to 64: Depression and other mental disorders (8.3 million); chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and asthma (8.2 million); hyperlipidemia (6.5 million); and osteoarthritis (5.8 million).
• Women 30 to 44: Depression and other mental disorders (5 million); chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or asthma (4.8 million); female genital disorders (4.2 million); and acute bronchitis (4 million).

AHRQ's data includes treatment in doctors' offices and hospital outpatient clinics, emergency rooms, hospitals, and by home health care providers. This analysis was based on data from AHRQ's Medical Expenditure Panel Survey. MEPS collects information each year from a nationally representative sample of the U.S. civilian noninstitutionalized population about their health care use, expenses, access to services, health status, and the quality of the health care they obtained.

For a copy of a table showing the number of women ages 18 and older who received medical care for selected conditions, or to speak a MEPS data expert about the findings, contact Bob Isquith in AHRQ's Office of Communications and Knowledge Transfer at Bob.Isquith@ahrq.hhs.gov or call (301) 427-1539.