The number of people over the age of 30 suffering from high blood pressure has doubled in the last thirty years for and more than half of them are not treated for it.
- The number of people with high blood pressure has doubled in thirty years, from 648 million in 1990 to nearly 1.3 billion in 2019.
- Among them, about 720 million are not taking treatment.
- Acting directly against hypertension could reduce the number of heart attacks by 20 to 25% and the number of strokes by 35 to 40%.
High blood pressure is a growing health problem. A study, carried out by researchers from Imperial College London and published this Tuesday, August 24 in the journal The Lancet, estimates that more than 1.3 billion people worldwide are affected by high blood pressure. Added to this is the fact that more than half of them do not take treatment, which exposes them to serious cardiovascular problems. As a result, this would cause more than 8.5 million deaths each year.
Twice as many people concerned
This is a large-scale global study, commissioned by the World Health Organization (WHO), the results of which appear dramatic. “We used data from 1990 to 2019 on people aged 30 to 79 years from population-based studies with blood pressure measurement and blood pressure treatment data”, reveals Majid Ezzati, specialist in global health at Imperial College London and lead author of the study. The researchers looked at data covering 184 countries.
Researchers have defined hypertension “such as blood pressure of 140 mm Hg or higher, diastolic blood pressure of 90 mm Hg or higher, or by taking medications for this condition”, says Majid Ezzati. “High blood pressure significantly increases the risk of heart, brain and kidney disease, and is one of the leading causes of death and disease worldwide”, recalls the WHO.
720 million patients do not take treatment
The results revealed that the number of people with high blood pressure has doubled in thirty years, from 648 million in 1990 to almost 1.3 billion in 2019. Of these, around 720 million are not taking treatment. The authors support this last point, emphasizing that there are many treatments for this problem and that a healthier diet and exercise can improve the lot of many patients.
Not all countries are affected in the same way by this upsurge in the number of hypertensive patients. Many high-income countries, such as Canada, Switzerland, the United Kingdom or Spain have reported a historically low level of people with hypertension unlike lower-income countries such as Paraguay and countries in Europe. central as Hungary, Poland and Croatia. “The prevalence of hypertension was highest in Central and Eastern Europe, Central Asia, Oceania, Southern Africa and some countries in Latin America and the Caribbean”, assure the authors of the study.
Worrisome global trends
Acting directly against hypertension could reduce the number of heart attacks by 20 to 25% and the number of strokes by 35 to 40%, say the authors. This highlights the importance of having a healthy lifestyle. To treat or prevent hypertension, you must eat less salt and more fruits and vegetables, have regular physical activity, avoid tobacco and reduce your alcohol consumption.
“The cardiovascular disease pandemic has received less attention over the past 18 months, but reflects worrying global trends in unhealthy lifestyle choices such as high fat, sugar, salt and alcohol consumption, sedentary lifestyles with avoidance of exercise and smoking, all of which lead to higher blood pressure and bad cholesterol levels that damage the blood vessels that supply the heart and brain”, concluded Robert Storey, professor of cardiology at the University of Sheffield who was not involved in the study.
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