Study: Taking Blood Pressure Medications as Prescribed Extends Life Span of Seniors

A study published in Hypertension found that taking blood pressure medication as prescribed helped even the most frail seniors live longer, reports Pharmacy Times . Researchers examined data on nearly 1.3 million people aged 65 and older in Italy's Lombardy region, who had three or more blood pressure medication prescriptions between 2011 and 2012. They analyzed the public healthcare database to estimate the amount of time over the next seven years, or until death, that each person continued to receive those drugs. Analysis of roughly 255,000 deaths over the follow-up period further categorized subjects' health status as good, medium, poor, or very poor. The likelihood of death over the seven-year period was 16 percent for those in good health, which rose to 64 percent for those in very poor health. Compared with those with very low compliance with medications, persons with high adherence were 44 percent less likely to die if they began the study in good health and 33 percent less likely to die if they started in very poor health. In addition, the greatest survival benefit was observed among those who started in good health, and the most modest benefit was in those who began in very poor health. The biggest benefits were seen in those who received blood pressure medication to cover more than 75 percent of the follow-up period, versus those with intermediate or low levels of coverage.