The study, which was co-led by Imperial College London, found that 82 per cent of all people with hypertension, around one billion, live in low and middle-income countries.
A ‘public health failure'
Although it is straightforward to diagnose hypertension and relatively easy to treat the condition with low-cost drugs, the study revealed significant gaps in diagnosis and treatment. About 580 million people with hypertension were unaware of their condition because they were never diagnosed. The study also indicated that more than half of people with hypertension, or a total of 720 million people, were not receiving the treatment that they needed.
Men and women in Canada, Iceland and the Republic of Korea were most likely to receive medication to treat and control their hypertension, with more than 70 per cent of those with the condition receiving treatment in 2019. In comparison, men and women in sub-Saharan Africa, central, south and south-east Asia, and Pacific Island nations are the least likely to be receiving medication.
Comments