May measurement month 2017—a concerted global effort to raise awareness of elevated blood pressure

Access through your institution Buy or subscribe Worldwide around 9.4 million deaths per year are directly attributable to raised blood pressure (BP) [1]. Elevated BP affects more than one

billion people globally and represents the single biggest contributing risk factor to the global burden of disease with its detrimental consequences presenting predominantly as strokes,

coronary heart disease, heart failure, kidney failure, and dementia [2]. While lifestyle modification and appropriate pharmacotherapy are highly effective in lowering BP, some major

obstacles in reducing the burden of hypertension include the lack of awareness and suboptimal control of BP in treated patients. Indeed, international data suggest that only half of affected

subjects are aware of their elevated BP [3] and less than a third of patients receiving treatment for their hypertension actually reach target BP levels [3]. These issues are particularly

evident in lower income countries, which represent the majority of the world’s population [1]. In its vision for worldwide cardiovascular disease prevention, the World Heart Federation

identified elevated blood pressure as one of the primary targets for intervention in order to achieve their goal of a 25% reduction in non-communicable disease by 2025 [4]. Increasing the

awareness of elevated BP has been identified as a key component to facilitate these ambitious efforts [3]. This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution ACCESS

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about institutional subscriptions * Read our FAQs * Contact customer support REFERENCES * NCD Risk Factor Collaboration (NCD-RisC). Worldwide trends in blood pressure from 1975 to 2015: a

pooled analysis of 1479 population-based measurement studies with 19·1 million participants. Lancet. 2017;389:37–55. Article  Google Scholar  * Rapsomaniki E, Timmis A, George J,

Pujades-Rodriguez M, Shah AD, Denaxas S, et al. Blood pressure and incidence of twelve cardiovascular diseases: lifetime risks, healthy life-years lost, and age-specific associations in 1·25

million people. Lancet. 2014;383:1899–1911. Article  Google Scholar  * Chow CK, Teo KK, Rangarajan S, Islam S, Gupta R, Avezum A, et al. Prevalence, awareness, treatment, and control of

hypertension in rural and urban communities in high-, middle-, and low-income countries. JAMA. 2013;310:959–68. Article  CAS  Google Scholar  * Yusuf S, Wood D, Ralston J, Reddy KS. The

world heart federation’s vision for worldwide cardiovascular disease prevention. Lancet. 2015;386:399–402. Article  Google Scholar  Download references AUTHOR INFORMATION AUTHORS AND

AFFILIATIONS * Dobney Hypertension Centre, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, School of Medicine, Royal Perth Hospital Unit, University of Western Australia, Perth, WA, Australia Markus

P. Schlaich * Department of Cardiology, Royal Perth Hospital, Perth, WA, Australia Markus P. Schlaich * Department of Nephrology, Royal Perth Hospital, Perth, WA, Australia Markus P.

Schlaich * Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute, Melbourne, VIC, Australia Markus P. Schlaich & Melinda Carrington Authors * Markus P. Schlaich View author publications You can also search

for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Melinda Carrington View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar CORRESPONDING AUTHOR Correspondence to

Markus P. Schlaich. ETHICS DECLARATIONS CONFLICT OF INTEREST The authors declare that they have no competing interests. RIGHTS AND PERMISSIONS Reprints and permissions ABOUT THIS ARTICLE

CITE THIS ARTICLE Schlaich, M.P., Carrington, M. May measurement month 2017—a concerted global effort to raise awareness of elevated blood pressure. _J Hum Hypertens_ 32, 319–320 (2018).

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41371-017-0006-1 Download citation * Received: 06 September 2017 * Accepted: 11 September 2017 * Published: 10 January 2018 * Issue Date: May 2018 * DOI:

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