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
Presentations at the International Society of Hypertension 2022
Our team presented 7 abstracts at the International Society for Hypertension in Kyoto, Japan in October 2022. Topics included impact of medication dispensing reforms on hypertension treatment coverage, temporal trends in blood pressure from May Measurement Month screening program in Nepal, and options to streamline hypertension screening. We also presented a trial showing a large impact of inappropriate cuff size on blood pressure misreading.
Quality Assessment of Consumer-Facing Websites on Sodium Reduction
Manuscript published in the Journal of Clinical Hypertension: “Quality assessment of consumer-facing websites on sodium reduction”; This manuscript was led by students at Hopkins and evaluates the quality of information and guidance on dietary sodium reduction available on consumer-facing websites.Consumers seeking information and guidance online will find that the most easily accessible websites offer accurate but limited information and provide insufficient guidance on how to lower sodium intake. Websites with practical and accurate guidance are needed to help consumers effectively reduce dietary sodium.
Additional Resources:
Team Visit to Research Project in Nepal
Drs. Appel, Matsushita, and Neupane from the Hopkins team visited Nepal in October 2022 to meet with in-country partners on the current project on having community health workers screen and treat hypertension under the supervision of a physician (the MUTU study). Our team hosted a dissemination workshop, with ~150 attendees including stakeholders from the government, the WHO country office, media, researchers, and clinicians.