Alarming New Study Finds The Number Of People With High Blood Pressure Has Doubled In Three Decades

The number of people with high blood pressure around the world has almost doubled in the past 30 years, and almost half were unaware they had it.

A new study conducted by researchers from Imperial College London and scientists from the World Health Organization found that the number of people aged 30 to 79 with high blood pressure rose from 650 million to 1.28 billion between 1990 and 2019.

The study, which was published in The Lancet on Tuesday, analyzed blood pressure measurement and treatment data from more than 100 million people in 184 countries. High blood pressure, or hypertension, is diagnosed when the upper number on one reading reaches 140 and the lower number reaches 90 on two separate readings on different days.

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Research shows that nearly 580 million people did not know they had the disease and that about 720 million people were not receiving treatment with drugs designed to lower their blood pressure. The disease can cause significant damage to vital organs and is one of the leading causes of death worldwide, according to the World Health Organization.

“Almost half a century after we started treating hypertension, which is easy to diagnose and treat with low-cost drugs, it is a public health failure that so many people with hypertension around the world are still not getting the treatment they need, ”said Majid Ezzati, lead author of the study and professor of global environmental health at the School of Public Health at Imperial College London, in a statement.

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The researchers also concluded that the study highlighted equity issues in healthcare given the disparity between richer countries and some low-income regions. Meanwhile, the researchers note that although the overall case rate has remained largely unchanged, there has been a shift in the burden to low-income countries.

“Although rates of treatment and control of hypertension have improved in most countries since 1990, there has been little change in most countries in sub-Saharan Africa and the Pacific Islands. International donors and national governments must prioritize global equity of treatment for this major global health risk, ”said Bin Zhou, researcher at the School of Public Health at Imperial College London, who led the analysis, in the release.

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