Hypertension: Sex-Related Differences in Drug Treatment, Prevalence and Blood Pressure Control in Primary Care

The review article discusses the sex-related differences in hypertension treatment and control. It reveals that antihypertensive treatment reduces cardiovascular risk equally in both sexes, but women experience higher rates of adverse events. Despite having higher rates of treatment, women have worse blood pressure control in real-world primary care data. The study also found that women use more thiazide diuretics, while men use more angiotensin-enzyme inhibitors and calcium-channel blockers. Original data from a large Swedish primary-care register showed that blood pressure control was better in women until their late sixties, after which men had better control. The study concludes that these findings warrant further research and highlight the need for individualized risk assessment in all patients with hypertension.