Over half of all people living in the Southeast U.S., dubbed the "stroke belt" have high blood pressure, and little is being done to improve the numbers.
"The rates have not changed," author, Doctor. Uchechukwu K. A. Sampson, an assistant professor of medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center told Reuters. "The number of people who do not know that they have high blood pressure is the same."
The U.S. has not changed its guidelines for treating high blood pressure since 1977.
Across the nation about one-third of all adults have high blood pressure and the condition contributes to about 7.5 million deaths worldwide annually.
Researchers looked at 69,000 Caucasian and African American adults living in southern states who had similar incomes and education levels.
The team found 57 percent of the participants suffered from high blood pressure, and black were nearly twice as likely as whites to struggle with the condition.
Fifty one percent of men of both races had high blood pressure; 64 percent of black women and 52 percent of white women struggled with the condition.
Researchers believe obesity is a driving factor in the staggering high blood pressure rates. Diabetes, cholesterol levels, and family history are among other contributors.
"Are they still the same factors people have found before?" Sampson said, Reuters reported. "If they are, that is bad news, then that means we have not done what we should have done in the past few years."
Out of the study participants that were aware of the fact they had high blood pressure only 30 percent were prescribed diuretic medication, which are supposed to be one of the "first-line medication options," Reuters reported.
"We need to create more awareness that women also have this problem," Sampson said. "Everyone should be treated equally aggressively, with the same level of interest."
"Patients, be more proactive in monitoring your blood pressure," he said, Reuters reported. "Physicians should be much more proactive as well."
