Number of people with hypertension has doubled since 1990, stressful report says

More people around the world are living with high blood pressure, new research reveals this week. The study, based on data from nearly 200 countries, estimates that more than a billion adults worldwide had hypertension in 2019, double the number estimated in 1990. In addition, more than half of these cases go untreated, and few keep it well controlled.

High blood pressure is generally defined as having consistently a systolic blood pressure of 140 mm Hg or more (the upper number in a blood pressure reading) and a diastolic blood pressure of 90 mm Hg or more (lower number). Although it usually does not cause visible symptoms on its own, chronic hypertension can stress and damage the body, especially the cardiovascular system, over time; this then increases the risk of other conditions such as heart attack, stroke and kidney disease. In the United States alone, hypertension was valued contribute to nearly 500,000 deaths in 2018.

The new research, published Tuesday in the Lancet, is the work of researchers at the NCD Risk Factor Collaboration (NCD-RisC), a network of scientists that studies the prevalence of major contributors to noncommunicable diseases around the world. The group works closely with the World Health Organization and is coordinated by researchers from Imperial College London. Their study aims to provide the first estimates of hypertension and how it is diagnosed, treated and controlled in each country.

The team looked at 1,201 studies involving more than 100 million people aged 30 to 79, dating back 30 years in 184 countries, studies that had a nationally representative sample of participants. People were defined as hypertensive if they had a blood pressure of 140/90 and above or if they were taking blood pressure medication. These data were then used to estimate hypertension rates in 200 countries and territories during those years.

In total, they estimated that 1.27 billion people aged 30 to 79 matched the high blood pressure bill in 2019, up from 650 million in 1990. After adjusting for age (older people are more likely to suffer from high blood pressure and people are generally living longer now than they were three decades ago), however, the global prevalence of hypertension has not changed significantly over these years, with around a third of men and women estimated to have it back in 1990 as well as in 2019.

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A diet high in sodium as well as a lack of exercise can to contribute high blood pressure, while other conditions, such as diabetes, are risk factors. Aside from lifestyle changes, there are medications readily available that can help control it. But the authors estimate that more than half of all cases (720 million) are currently untreated, while only about 20% of people had their blood pressure well controlled. Poorly managed or untreated hypertension only increases the risk of health problems.

There have been some local successes, with countries like the UK, Spain, Canada and Switzerland experiencing a sharp decline in their prevalence of hypertension since the 1990s. But many other countries have worsened or have remained the same. In two countries, Paraguay and Tuvalu, more than 50% of women had hypertension in 2019, while more than 50% of men had hypertension in nine countries, including Argentina, Hungary and Paraguay. Just over a billion people with hypertension are believed to live in low- and middle-income countries.

The United States ranked 38th on the list of countries with the lowest prevalence of hypertension in 2019, with no major change in prevalence since 1990. In 2019, it was estimated that 29% of women and 34 % of men suffered from hypertension. But he placed 4th to actually treat it, with 73% of people receiving care. In 2017, it should be noted that new guidelines from leading organizations in the United States recommended that hypertension be defined as having a minimum reading of 130/80, not 140/90. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, using these recommendations, instead estimates that 45% of American adults over 18 have high blood pressure.

“Despite medical and pharmacological advancements over the decades, global progress in the management of hypertension has been slow, and the vast majority of people with hypertension still go untreated, with great disadvantages in developing countries. low and middle income, “said lead author Majid Ezzati, researcher. at Imperial College London, in a press release published by the Lancet.

Because some countries have been able to improve their high blood pressure problem during these years, with some middle-income countries now doing better than most richer countries, the authors hope that much more can be done to reduce its threat to l global scale. But many of the best ways to fight hypertension will depend on radical structural changes within these countries, as well as sufficient financial resources.

“Policies that allow people in the poorest countries to access healthier food – in particular by reducing salt intake and making fruits and vegetables more affordable and accessible – while improving detection by expanding coverage universal health and primary care, and ensuring uninterrupted access to effective medicines, must be funded and implemented to slow the growing epidemic of high blood pressure in low- and middle-income countries, ”said Ezzati.