Blood pressure medication associated with falls in older people

 Medication to treat high blood pressure in older people appears to be associated with an increased risk of serious injury from falling, such as a hip fracture or head injury, especially in older people who have been injured in previous falls, says a study in JAMA Internal Medicine.

Scientists looked at the association between blood pressure medication use and experiencing a serious injury from a fall in 4,961 people older than 70 years with high blood pressure. Among the patients, 14.1% took no blood pressure medication, 54.6% had moderate exposure to blood pressure medication and 31.3% had high exposure.

Over three years, 9% of participants had serious injuries from falls. The risk for serious injuries from falls was higher for those who used antihypertensive medication than for nonusers and even higher for people who had had a previous fall injury.

“Although cause and effect cannot be established in this observational study and we cannot exclude confounding, antihypertensive medications seemed to be associated with an increased risk of serious fall injury compared with no antihypertensive use in this nationally representative cohort of older adults, particularly among participants with a previous fall injury,” the research team says. “The potential harms vs benefits of antihypertensive medications should be weighed in deciding whether to continue antihypertensives in older adults with multiple chronic conditions.”

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