(HealthDay News) — The number of people with hypertension doubled from 1990 to 2019, despite stable age-standardized prevalence, according to a study published online Aug. 24 in The Lancet.
Bin Zhou, Ph.D., from Imperial College London, and colleagues examined the prevalence of hypertension and progress in its detection, treatment, and control from 1990 to 2019 for 200 countries and territories using data for people aged 30 to 79 years.
The researchers found that despite a stable global age-standardized prevalence, from 1990 to 2019, the number of people aged 30 to 79 years with hypertension doubled from 331 and 317 million women and men to 626 and 652 million women and men, respectively. Globally, 59% and 49% of women and men, respectively, with hypertension reported a previous diagnosis; 47% and 38%, respectively, were treated. Among individuals with hypertension, control rates were 23% and 18% for women and men, respectively, in 2019, with the highest treatment and control rates in South Korea, Canada and Iceland, followed by the United States, Costa Rica, Germany, Portugal and Taiwan. Since 1990, there were improvements in treatment and control rates in most countries, but little change was seen in most countries in sub-Saharan Africa and Oceania. The largest improvements were seen in high-income countries and some upper-middle-income and recently high-income countries.
“There is an urgent need for a transformation and innovative approaches to reduce the burden of hypertension globally,” writes the author of an accompanying editorial.
Several authors disclosed financial ties to the pharmaceutical industry.
