Table 3. Blood pressure control and prescribing in hypertensive patients in US Medicare v English NHS by socioeconomic-position (> 65 years).

	England			United States
	Years of Education
	Low	Medium	High	Low	Medium	High
Systolic BP mean (SE)	140.1 (0.73)	142.1 (3.00)	140.0 (1.11)	136.7 (0.78)	133.9 (1.24)†	134.6 (1.05)
Diastolic BP mean (SE)	73.4 (0.41)	75.6 (1.44)	74.8 (0.64)†	79.0 (0.42)	78.3 (0.65)	79.4 (0.57)
BP <140/90 mmHg, % (SE)	53.6 (1.94)	47.8 (6.30)	54.2 (3.03)	56.8 (1.90)	57.9 (2.83)	61.5 (2.67)
BP <150/90 mmHg, % (SE)	71.8 (1.76)	66.6 (6.20)	73.1 (2.79)	72.8 (1.71)	73.6 (2.51)	76.5 (2.35)
Anti-hypertensive medication, % (SE)	81.0 (1.48)	80.0 (5.16)	80.3 (2.45)	90.3 (1.21)	92.7 (1.87)	92.8 (1.54)

BP = Blood Pressure; SE = standard error; Values and significance testing controls for age and sex, body mass index, vascular co-morbidity and smoking (age controlled at 75, female sex, non-smoker, no co-morbidity and BMI = 28.8 – the English mean). Significance tests compare the medium and high SEP groups with the low within each country.

†p<0.05.