MONDAY, Feb. 9, 2026 (HealthDay News) -- Most U.S. adults with uncontrolled blood pressure (BP) are not taking antihypertensive medication, according to a research letter published online Feb. 2 in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Shakia T. Hardy, Ph.D., from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and colleagues used data from 3,216 participants in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (2021 to 2023) to characterize the U.S. adult population with BP above the 2025 American Heart Association/American College of Cardiology goal of systolic BP <130 mmHg and diastolic BP <80 mmHg.
The researchers found that in 2021-2023, an estimated 79.1 percent of U.S. adults with hypertension had uncontrolled BP. Of these, more than six in 10 (61.3 percent) were not taking antihypertensive medication. Those with uncontrolled BP not taking antihypertensive medication were younger (estimated mean age, 49.2 versus 62.4 years) and were less likely to have health insurance (estimated 88.8 versus 95.1 percent), a routine place for health care (estimated 83.0 versus 95.9 percent), and high cardiovascular disease risk (estimated 33.7 versus 71.9 percent) compared with those taking antihypertensive medication. Compared with adults with uncontrolled BP who were not taking antihypertensive medication, those who were taking medication were significantly more likely to have systolic BP or diastolic BP above goal by ≥10 mmHg (estimated 52.6 versus 34.6 percent), ≥20 mmHg (estimated 24.7 versus 12.8 percent), and ≥30 mmHg (estimated 10.8 versus 5.7 percent).
"These findings highlight a large gap in hypertension control that implementation of the 2025 AHA/ACC BP guideline recommendations for treating hypertension earlier and more intensively could address," the authors write.
Two authors disclosed ties to the biopharmaceutical industry.