Researchers have identified that people living in low and middle-income countries have a higher prevalence of hypertension or high blood pressure compared to people living in high-income countries, according to new research in the American Heart Association's journal Circulation.
Hypertension is a major risk factor for heart disease and stroke as well as the leading preventable cause of premature death and disability worldwide. Past reports have shown that the prevalence of hypertension is increasing in low and middle-income countries while it is steady or decreasing in high-income countries, but recent estimates of this global disparity are unknown.
‘Hypertension awareness and treatment options have increased in low and middle income countries, but factors that control it like unhealthy lifestyle and lack of physical activity have worsened.’
AdvertisementA 2010 data analysis involving more than 968,000 participants from 90 countries found that more than 30% of adults worldwide live with high blood pressure, and 75% of those adults live in low- and middle-income countries.
In this study, researchers used sex- and age-specific high blood pressure prevalence from 131 past reports to calculate the regional and global estimates of hypertensive adults.
Researchers found in 2010, 31.1% (1.39 billion) of the adult population worldwide had high blood pressure. In high-income countries 28.5% (349 million) of adults had hypertension compared to 31.5% (1.04 billion) of adults in low- and middle-income countries.
Prevalence of high blood pressure decreased by 2.6% in high-income countries while it increased by 7.7% in low- and middle-income countries between 2000 and 2010.
In high-income countries, significantly improvements were noted from 2000 to 2010. Awareness increased from 58.2% to 67.0%, treatment rates improved from 44.5% to 55.6% and control increased from 17.9%t to 28.4%.
In low and middle-income countries, awareness slightly improved from 32.3% to 37.9% and treatment increased from 24.9% to 29.0% from 2000 to 2010, but control worsened from 8.4% to 7.7%.
"Aging populations and urbanization, which is often accompanied by unhealthy lifestyle factors, such as high sodium, fat and calorie diets and lack of physical activity, may play an important role in the epidemic of hypertension in low- and middle-income countries," said Jiang He, M.D., Ph.D., senior study author and researcher at Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine in New Orleans, Louisiana.
Healthcare systems in many low and middle-income countries are overburdened and do not have the resources to effectively treat and control hypertension, Dr. Jiang said. Hypertension is asymptomatic and many people in low and middle-income countries do not have access to screenings or regular preventative medical care, it often goes underdiagnosed.
Researchers noted that most of the world's population is represented in the study, but more than half of the countries worldwide didn't have data on hypertension prevalence, so there may be some inaccuracies in their regional and global estimates of adults living with high blood pressure.
"Hypertension needs to be a public health priority in low and middle-income countries to prevent future cardiovascular and kidney disease, and associated costs to society," said Katherine T. Mills, Ph.D., lead author and researcher at Tulane University. "Collaboration is needed from national and international stakeholders to develop innovative and cost-effective programs to prevent and control this condition."
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