Impact of High Blood Pressure on Middle-Aged Lifestyle

Cardiovascular diseases have become a common issue in the present times. However, one of the most prevalent cardiovascular diseases is high blood pressure. As blood is pumped from the heart through the arteries to other body organs, it is necessary to maintain a particular level of pressure that should sustain the flow while at the same time aligning to the capacity of the blood vessels. When this pressure exceeds the pressure that the blood vessels can support, this could be devastating to both the blood vessels and the organs that receive this blood. In return, this affects the distribution of vital body requirements such as oxygen and nutrients. There are various studies that focus on this problem and more so due to its relevance in the healthcare sector. While many of these focus on particular at-risk groups, very few studies explore the overall issues pertaining the problem including causes, risk factors, interventions, prevention, and secondary illnesses. At the same time, the prevalence and risk factors of the disease may vary from time to time, which calls for a continuous update of the studies in order to identify the positioning of the problem at every one time. This impacts clear roles of nursing practice that have been established many years ago that center around patient education of hypertension management. “The role of nurses has been recognized for nearly 50 years in public and professional education to improve hypertension control promoted by the US National High Blood Pressure Education Program’s Joint National Committee reports and other publications” (Himmelfarb, Mensah, & Hill 2016, para. 4). In an attempt to develop a clear understanding of the problem, this paper will develop a plan that will help in exploring various recent studies discussing various specific aspects of high blood pressure and consolidate the discussions into a single comprehensive document.

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Significance of the problem

High blood pressure has become a common problem especially for the young and middle-aged. In this case, high blood pressure is responsible for at least 12% of the total annual mortalities around the world (Bromfield & Muntner, 2013). However, the prevalence of the disease may vary from place to place as well as from one population to another. According to Joffres, Falaschetti, Gillespie, Robitaille … Campbell (2013), more than 75 million Americans, which represents 29% of the total US population, suffers from high blood pressure. While this may be a major problem amongst the general population, races such as the non-Hispanic whites are at relatively higher risks of getting high blood pressure (Lackland, 2014). Unfortunately, some of these studies take a long time before their results are availed to the public. At the same time, the causes and risk factors may keep on changing from time to time. As reported by Lindsay, Connor, Joffres, Birtwhistle … Cloutier (2013), the lifestyle of that people lead at the present age has changed drastically from the lifestyles that they led a decade or two ago. Coincidentally, high blood pressure is one of the most common lifestyle diseases (Diaz & Shimbo, 2013). As a result, it is necessary to constantly update the prevalence, causes, risk factors, and the interventions available for the disease. This will then help the public to understand how to address the problem.

There is a need to develop comprehensive results detailing every aspect of high blood pressure. It is evident that researchers have accorded high blood pressure the attention that it deserves. In this case, a simple search on various catalogs avails a large number of articles and books discussing various issues regarding the disease. Unfortunately, a simple analysis of the results indicates that most of these studies focus on a particular area rather than the whole problem. This leaves a lot of gaps in the results. While it may be important to generate the specific results as a way of creating a more meaningful understanding of that particular area, it is equally necessary to consolidate all the aspects of the disease. For instance, it is necessary to avail information regarding both the risk factors and the prevention at the same time in order to create the best impact. If this study is accomplished, it will thus be of high significance to the healthy population, patients with high blood pressure, health practitioners and caregivers, and the wider health sector.

Research questions

A number of research questions have been developed in order to help in exploring the problem. However, some of the most significant questions and a description of their feasibility will be discussed in this section.

What are the risk factors for high blood pressure?

This is an important research question for this paper. In this case, it helps in identifying the things that make people susceptible to high blood pressure. As discussed by Tespaye, Byass & Wall (2009), for example, being middle-aged puts one at a higher risk of getting high blood pressure than it is the case for the elderly. At the same time, a group such as the non-Hispanic Whites in the US is at a relatively higher risk than the African Americans (Lackland, 2014). There is a lot of data regarding the risk factors, which means that this will be important while studying the problem.

What are the causes of high blood pressure?

There are various causes of high blood pressure. While many studies have developed a set of causes regarding the disease, it is difficult to identify one that explores all the possible causes. As such, this area may need more focus as a way of developing a better understanding.

How prevalent is high blood pressure and how does it vary?

High blood pressure is highly prevalent. As discussed earlier, however, this prevalence may vary from place to place as well as from one group to another. As such, exploring the prevalence from various regions may be important in order to generate results that best represent the general population.

What interventions are available for high blood pressure and which are the most appropriate?

Various interventions exist regarding the disease. However, they may work differently for different groups. While most of these interventions are often generalized, it may be important to illustrate how well each of them works and to which group.

How does one know when they have high blood pressure?

It is important to discuss the diagnosis of the disease. Similar to other diseases, high blood pressure has a number of signs and symptoms that one can evaluate to determine its existence as well as other laboratory tests that could be done to generate a better conclusion.

Pico question

This study will focus on the middle-aged as the population of the study. At the same time, the paper will also focus on a change of lifestyle as the intervention of the disease. The expected outcome revolves around a decline or rise in the risk factors of high blood pressure. In this paper, this will be represented by the chances of the disease. The following PICO question will thus guide this study.

Does a change of lifestyle determine the chances of high blood pressure amongst the middle-aged population?

Keywords

It is important to develop a set of keywords that will guide the process of research. In order to generate good results, the following keywords have been developed after narrowing down the PICO question.

High blood pressure
Prevalence of high blood pressure
Risk factors of high blood pressure
High blood pressure amongst the middle-aged
Impact of age on prevalence of high blood pressure
Interventions of high blood pressure
Causes of high blood pressure
How to prevent high blood pressure
Impact of lifestyle on high blood pressure
Lifestyles that contribute to high blood pressure

Impact of High Blood Pressure on Middle-Aged Lifestyle

References

Bromfield, S., & Muntner, P. (2013). High Blood Pressure: The Leading Global Burden of Disease Risk Factor and the Need for Worldwide Prevention Programs. Current Hypertension Reports, 15(3), 134–136. http://doi.org/10.1007/s11906-013-0340-9

Diaz, K. M., & Shimbo, D. (2013). Physical Activity and the Prevention of Hypertension. Current Hypertension Reports, 15(6), 659–668. http://doi.org/10.1007/s11906-013-0386-8

Himmelfarb, C., Mensh, Y., & Hill, M. (2016). Expanding the Role of Nurses to Improve Hypertension Care and Control Globally. Obtained from http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S221499961600028X

Joffres, M., Falaschetti, E., Gillespie, C., Robitaille, C., Loustalot, F., Poulter, N., … Campbell, N. (2013). Hypertension prevalence, awareness, treatment and control in national surveys from England, the USA and Canada, and correlation with stroke and ischaemic heart disease mortality: a cross-sectional study. BMJ Open, 3(8), e003423. http://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2013-003423

Lackland, D. T. (2014). Racial Differences in Hypertension: Implications for High Blood Pressure Management. The American Journal of the Medical Sciences, 348(2), 135–138. http://doi.org/10.1097/MAJ.0000000000000308

Lindsay, P., Connor Gorber, S., Joffres, M., Birtwhistle, R., McKay, D., & Cloutier, L. (2013). Recommendations on screening for high blood pressure in Canadian adults. Canadian Family Physician, 59(9), 927–933.

Tesfaye, F., Byass, P., & Wall, S. (2009). Population based prevalence of high blood pressure among adults in Addis Ababa: uncovering a silent epidemic. BMC Cardiovascular Disorders, 9, 39. http://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2261-9-39

Impact of High Blood Pressure on Middle-Aged Lifestyle