Over 80% hypertension patients live in low- and middle-income countries

Over one billion people with high blood pressure — 82 per cent of the total number of hypertension patients in the world — lived in low- and middle-income countries in 2019, according to a new study. 

There are also regional disparities in treatment and control of high blood pressure despite easy diagnosis and low cost of medicines, the study published in Lancet August 24, 2021 pointed out.

Treatment and control rates in Nepal, Indonesia and several countries in sub-Saharan Africa and Oceania were particularly low. 

Treatment rates among women were less than 25 per cent and below 20 per cent for men. 

Control rates were less than 10 per cent for women and men in these countries and for men in some countries in the Middle East and north Africa, central and south Asia and eastern Europe, found the study.  

The study was conducted by a global network of physicians and scientists led by the Imperial College London and the World Health Organization (WHO). 

The researchers studied prevalence, detection, treatment and control of hypertension in 200 countries and territories from 1990 to 2019. 

They restricted the interviews to people in the age bracket of 30-79 years because hypertension prevalence is relatively low before age 30 years and the threshold as well as treatment differ in older ages.

The total number of adults aged 30-79 with high blood pressure has doubled from 650 million to 1.28 billion during the period, the study found. This, however, is mainly due to population growth and aging. The percentage of people with hypertension has changed little since 1990.

About 580 million people with hypertension were unaware of their condition because they were never diagnosed and 720 million did not receive the required treatment.

The study defined hypertension as having systolic blood pressure 140 millimeters of mercury (mmHg) or greater, diastolic blood pressure 90 mmHg or greater, or  taking medication for the condition.

The hypertension treatment rate was 47 per cent in women and 38 per cent in men globally, according to the report. 

Less than half the patients who received treatment had achieved hypertension control, leading to a global control rate of 23 per cent for women and 18 per cent  for men.  

In the high-income Western and Asia-Pacific countries, 27-34 percent of women and men with hypertension were not aware of their condition, 10–14 per cent were untreated and 21 per cent did not achieve control, the scientists wrote.

Hypertension treatment and control were highest in South Korea, Canada and Iceland, where more than 70 per cent hypertension patients received treatment and  over half had the condition under control.

Treatment and control rates were also high in the United States, Costa Rica, Germany, Portugal and Taiwan.

Professor Majid Ezzati, senior author of the study and professor of Global Environmental Health at the School of Public Health at Imperial College London, said: 

Nearly half a century after we started treating hypertension, which is easy to diagnose and treat with low-cost medicines, it is a public health failure that so many of the people with high blood pressure in the world are still not getting the treatment they need.

WHO released fresh guidelines after 20 years for pharmacological treatment of hypertension in adults to help countries manage the condition better.  

The recommendations cover the level of blood pressure to start medication, type of medicine or combination of medicines to use, target blood pressure level and frequency of tests.

Subscribe to Daily Newsletter :

SUPPORT US

We are a voice to you; you have been a support to us. Together we build journalism that is independent, credible and fearless. You can further help us by making a donation. This will mean a lot for our ability to bring you news, perspectives and analysis from the ground so that we can make change together.