Global disparities in hypertension prevalence, awareness, treatment and control are large and increasing, a new study in the journal Circulation indicates.
For the report, researchers looked at studies published from 1995 through 2014 addressing sex- and age-specific rates of high blood pressure. Researchers said the sex- and age-specific hypertension prevalences from each country were applied to population data to determine how many adults, regionally and globally, had hypertension. Researchers applied proportions of awareness, treatment and control from each country to hypertensive populations to obtain regional and global estimates.
Here are four study findings.
1. Researchers estimated that 1.39 billion adults across the globe had hypertension in 2010: 349 million in high-income countries and 1.04 billion in low- and middle-income countries.
2. From 2000 to 2010, the prevalence of hypertension in high-income countries decreased by 2.6 percent, but increased by 7.7 percent in low- and middle-income countries.
3. In 2010, 67 percent of people in high-income countries were aware of their hypertension, compared to 38 percent of people in middle- and lower-income countries, the study found. Furthermore, 56 percent of people in high-income countries were likely to receive treatment compared with 29 percent in middle- and lower-income countries.
4. In 2010, the East Asia and Pacific region had the highest rate and increase in adults with hypertension, with 439 million people with hypertension.