Less than half (47%) of adults with hypertension are aware of their condition
One out of three adults in the world has hypertension
Hypertension is the leading risk factor for death and disability worldwide
A healthy diet and moderate exercise has been shown to reduce systolic blood pressure significantly
A 10 mm Hg reduction in systolic blood pressure reduces the risk of major cardiovascular diseases by approximately 30%
Why is hypertension important?
The answer is simple, hypertension (high blood pressure) is the leading cause of mortality and disability worldwide. More than 10 million individuals die every year due to hypertension.
What do we do?
We are committed to improving global hypertension prevention, screening, diagnosis, and management. Our main activities include building the evidence and developing educational materials in collaboration with partners from many countries (see map at right).
Latest Updates
Evaluating healthy food procurement and service policies in Nepal
The RTSL-JHU sodium reduction team lead for Healthy Public Food Procurement and Service Policies Dr. Sara Benjamin Neelon is working with Dr. Archana Shrestha at the Department of Public Health at Kathmandu University School of Medical Sciences in Dhulikhel, Nepal to evaluate the recent implementation of a healthy food procurement and service policy in four municipalities in the Kathmandu valley. The team conducted a baseline survey to measure the impact of the policy at the cafeteria level of public institutions and private schools in 2023-4. Endline evaluations are expected to be completed in 2025, after the policy has been implemented in all municipalities. This evaluation will provide valuable insight into the strengths of the current policy, as well as where the policy could be improved to have greater impact on healthy school environments. It will also allow for refinement of a novel tool created to assess settings where governments purchase, serve, and sell foods. This tool will become available for global use in 2025.
Research Prioritization for Hypertension Care Delivery
Johns Hopkins teamed with WHO and researchers around the world to conduct a series of webinars with the goal of identifying priorities for hypertension care delivery. The resulting publication can be found here:
Trial of WHO-HEARTS Package in Bangladesh
Johns Hopkins teamed with researchers at the National Heart Foundation in Bangladesh to conduct a trial to evaluate the effectiveness of the WHO HEARTS package. The results were published a BMJ journal, Heart, in July 2024.