📋 Could a Doctor's Age Bias Make Your Blood Pressure Worse? (AARP Article)
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Is Your Doctor’s Age Bias Making Your High Blood Pressure Worse?
The undertreatment of hypertension in older adults could have serious health consequences.
By Kimberly Hayes, AARP. Published October 10, 2024.
Older adults are more likely than younger people to have high blood pressure and suffer from serious health conditions that can be caused or worsened by hypertension, such as heart disease and stroke. But research suggests that high blood pressure in older patients often isn’t being treated as aggressively as it should be.
A Harvard study found that more than 70 percent of older Americans who need more intensive treatment for high blood pressure aren’t receiving it, and some health experts say they think age bias could play a role in those decisions. The assumption by doctors that high blood pressure is inevitable after a certain age, and concerns about side effects of lower blood pressures on older people, could be factors in this undertreatment.