In the last three years, the COVID-19 vaccine has generated a lot of public interest as a possible risk factor for blood clot formation, resulting in sudden cardiac arrest. However, a proven, bigger, and preventable risk factor for heart attack and brain stroke, i.e., hypertension, rarely gets due public attention. Let us dive deep into high blood pressure and its public health relevance.
In 2023, the World Health Organization (WHO) released a report, the first ever on hypertension, titled “Global report on hypertension: the race against a silent killer”. Hypertension was considered a silent killer as people often are not aware about high blood pressure till they develop complications. High blood pressure is the singlemost important risk factor for early deaths, leading to an estimated 10.8 million preventable deaths every year, globally. High blood pressure causes more deaths than other leading risk factors, such as tobacco use and high blood sugar. The number of adults with hypertension nearly doubled in the last three decades (since 1990) to reach 1.3 billion. Globally, an estimated 46% of adults with hypertension are unaware that they have the condition, and less than half (42%) with hypertension are diagnosed and treated. Only one in five adults (21%) with hypertension has it under control.
The Indian Council of Medical Research-INdia DIABetes (ICMR-INDIAB) study has estimated that in India, 311 million people (or one in every three adults) have hypertension. In the country, adults with hypertension are threefold of the estimated 101 million people living with diabetes.
