Nearly 33 per cent, or 1.71 billion, of the world’s adults had hypertension in 2020 — 400 million in high-income countries and 1.32 billion in low and middle-income countries, a new analysis has found.
With about 20 per cent of adults with hypertension worldwide had their blood pressure controlled in 2020, the rates of controlling the condition were also nearly three times higher in high-income countries compare to low- and middle-income countries — 40.2 per cent vs 13.6 per cent.
“High blood pressure remains a stubborn and deadly silent epidemic whose burden on public health systems has only increased in the past 20 years, particularly in countries least equipped to address it,” researchers, including those from the US’ Tulane University, said.
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The team pooled data from 287 population-based studies involving more than six million adults across 119 countries and examined changes in hypertension prevalence, awareness, treatment and control.
Findings published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology show that prevalence of hypertension has decreased slightly in high-income countries during 2000-2020, but nearly 90 per cent of the increase in adults with hypertension occurred in low- and middle-income countries.
Latin America, the Caribbean and sub-Saharan Africa were found to have had the highest hypertension prevalence as of 2020, while the largest total number of adults with hypertension was in East Asia and the Pacific, followed by South Asia.
The researchers also found that disparity in hypertension prevalence has grown over time.
In 2000, 70 per cent of adults with uncontrolled hypertension lived in low- and middle-income countries and by 2020, the share had risen to 83 per cent, they said.
“From 2000 to 2020 in high-income countries, awareness increased from 57.7 per cent to 69.2 per cent, treatment from 42.9 per cent to 66.3 per cent, and control from 16.4 per cent to 40.2 per cent,” the authors wrote.
“More modest increases were observed in low- and middle-income countries: awareness from 29.1 per cent to 46.1 per cent, treatment from 20.7 per cent to 30.8 per cent, and control from 6.4 per cent to 13.6 per cent,” they said.
The study is one of the most comprehensive analyses of global hypertension trends to date, the team said.
They added that the findings underscore the need to better implement proven strategies, including a wider access to affordable blood pressure medications, team-based care, accurate blood pressure measurement, simpler treatment protocols and health systems designed to support long-term management of chronic diseases.
