Talk to the Veterans Crisis Line now
U.S. flag
An official website of the United States government

VA Health Systems Research

Go to the VA ORD website
Go to the QUERI website

HSR Citation Abstract

Search | Search by Center | Search by Source | Keywords in Title

The potential impact of optimal blood pressure treatment intensity to reduce disparities in dementia between Black and White individuals.

Levine DA, Sussman JB, Hayward RA, Galecki AT, Whitney RT, BriceƱo EM, Gross AL, Giordani BJ, Elkind MS, Gottesman RF, Gaskin DJ, Sidney S, Yaffe K, Burke JF. The potential impact of optimal blood pressure treatment intensity to reduce disparities in dementia between Black and White individuals. Journal of Alzheimer's Disease : Jad. 2025 Jan 1; 103(2):506-518.

Dimensions for VA is a web-based tool available to VA staff that enables detailed searches of published research and research projects.

If you have VA-Intranet access, click here for more information vaww.hsrd.research.va.gov/dimensions/

VA staff not currently on the VA network can access Dimensions by registering for an account using their VA email address.
   Search Dimensions for VA for this citation
* Don't have VA-internal network access or a VA email address? Try searching the free-to-the-public version of Dimensions



Abstract:

BACKGROUND: Black adults have higher dementia risk than White adults. Whether tighter population-level blood pressure (BP) control reduces this disparity is unknown. OBJECTIVE: Estimate the impact of optimal BP treatment intensity on racial disparities in dementia. METHODS: A microsimulation study of US adults = 18 across a life-time policy-planning horizon. BP treatment strategies were the Systolic Blood Pressure Intervention Trial (SPRINT) protocol, the Eighth Joint National Committee (JNC-8) recommendations, and usual care (non-intervention control). Outcomes were all-cause dementia, atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD), stroke, myocardial infarction, non-ASCVD death, global cognitive performance, and optimal brain health (being free of dementia, cognitive impairment, or stroke). Population-level and individual-level effects stratified by race were estimated. RESULTS: Optimal population-level implementation of a SPRINT-based BP treatment strategy, compared to usual care, would average annual dementia incidence in White, but not Black, adults (1% versus 0%), due to hypertensive individuals'' greater survival, and reduce annual ASCVD events more in Black than White adults (13% versus 5%). Under a SPRINT-based strategy, individuals with hypertension gained more years lived without dementia, ASCVD, myocardial infarction, or stroke and more years lived in optimal brain health. A SPRINT-based strategy did not attenuate individual-level race disparities in outcomes, except stroke. Due to longer life expectancy, a SPRINT-based strategy did not substantially reduce lifetime dementia risk in either group. The JNC-8-based strategy had similar but smaller effects as the SPRINT-based strategy. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that tighter population-level BP control would not reduce population-level disparities in dementia between US Black and White adults.





Questions about the HSR website? Email the Web Team

Any health information on this website is strictly for informational purposes and is not intended as medical advice. It should not be used to diagnose or treat any condition.