Older people who take blood pressure medications had more serious injuries from falls than those not taking medications, according to a new study, reported Fox News.
The added risk with blood pressure meds for falls that cause serious injury has been suggested before, but older people shouldn't stop taking their medications based just on these results, the authors say.
"It is important to remember that no single study, and particularly an observational study such as ours, can give a definitive answer," said Dr. Mary E. Tinetti, who led the research.
Most people over 70 years of age have high blood pressure, or hypertension, which increases the risk for heart attacks and stroke.
Among US adults with high blood pressure in 2012, 83 percent were aware of their condition and 76 percent were taking medications to treat it, according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Survey.
For the new study, the researchers used existing, publicly available data on hospitalizations after a serious fall for almost 5,000 patients over 70 with hypertension.
Based on the patients' dosing of high blood pressure drugs and the number of different drugs they were taking over the three-year study period, researchers divided them into three groups of medication "intensity."
The patients' average age was 80 and 14 percent were taking no high blood pressure medications at all, while 55 percent were on a moderate-intensity regimen of blood pressure medications and 31 percent were on a high-intensity drug regimen.
Among those taking medication, more than a third were on at least three different kinds of blood pressure drugs.
Over the three years of the study, 446 patients suffered a serious injury, like hip fracture or head injury.
Compared to the no-medication group, those in the moderate-intensity medication group were 1.4 times as likely to suffer a serious injury from a fall, and those in the high intensity group were 1.3 times as likely.
It is possible, Tinetti said, that people who were at greater risk of fall injury to begin with were also at greater risk of being prescribed blood pressure medications, though even in a smaller group with similar medication users and non-users compared, the results remained the same.
Determining which factor is more important, the risk of heart disease and stroke or fall injuries, will depend on the individual patient, Tinetti said - there appears to be a tradeoff between the two.
"It is probably the case that some older adults are at greater risk of having a stroke and controlling their blood pressure is in their best interest," she said. "However, for others, the risk of a serious fall injury such as head injury or hip fracture may outweigh the benefit of blood pressure medications."
Patients and their doctors should make treatment decisions on an individual basis, and doctors should remember to ask their patients what their priorities are as well, she said.
