40% of Adults Worldwide Suffer From Hypertension

Hypertension is highly prevalent in all communities worldwide and has become a truly a global epidemic, according to a new study.

Researchers at Instituto Cardiovascular de Rosario (ICR; Argentina) conducted a substudy that measured blood pressure (BP) in 153,996 individuals from 528 urban and rural communities in 17 countries to assess the prevalence, awareness, and control of hypertension worldwide. The mean age of the participants was 50.4, 60% were female, and 46% were from rural communities. The hypertension cohort was part of the Prospective Urban Rural Epidemiology (PURE) study, which collects detailed information regarding environmental domains such as nutrition and associated food policy, psychosocial/socioeconomic factors, and tobacco environment. A minimum follow-up of 10 years is currently planned.

The results showed that the prevalence of hypertension was lowest in lowest-income countries (around 30%) and highest in upper-middle-income economies (around 50%), with high-income and low-middle-income economies having an intermediate level (around 40%). Only 30% of the population had optimal blood pressure, with another 30% found to be in the prehypertension range. Of the 40% with hypertension, 46% of these individuals were aware of their condition, 40% were treated, but only 13% were controlled.

In low-income countries, there were higher rates of hypertension in urban areas than in rural areas, but this was reversed in upper-income countries, where hypertension was more prevalent in rural communities. Men were more likely to be hypertensive than women in high- and middle-income countries, but women were more likely to be hypertensive than men in low-income countries.

Low levels of education were association with increased prevalence of hypertension in high- and middle-income economies, but the reverse was true in low-income countries, where hypertension was actually more common in better-educated people. Awareness, treatment, and control was higher in urban than in rural communities across all incomes, and women had higher rates of awareness, treatment, and control than men did, again across the board. The study was presented at the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) Congress, held during August 2012 in Munich (Germany).

“The diseases of high income countries become more and more important in low income countries,” concluded lead author and study presenter Rafael Diaz, MD. “On the other hand, diseases so far rare and therefore not sufficiently studied in low income countries may become more frequent in high income countries along with globalization of disease.”

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Instituto Cardiovascular de Rosario