Cost of treating hypertension in the elderly.

Hypertension is a common disease among the elderly, a population that will continue to grow over the next decade. Untreated hypertension can lead to cardiovascular events and mortality. Given the seriousness of this disease and the increase in the number of elderly with hypertension, this review focuses on the cost of treating hypertension in the elderly as described in recent publications. We found a limited number of articles related to the treatment of hypertension in the elderly. One publication provided insightful information pertaining to expenditures in the United States for hypertension in 1998. This article was the first to examine age distribution among persons 65 years and older. It has been shown that antihypertensive pharmacologic treatment significantly reduces the incidence of cardiovascular events. Without any other medical conditions, thiazide-like diuretics are recommended for the treatment of hypertension in the elderly due to their beneficial effects, low risk for side effects, and low cost. In general, it was found that the elderly have higher expenditures per capita for hypertension and per hypertensive condition.