[The cost of arterial hypertension in Spain]

High blood pressure has a high incidence and produces a high morbidity and mortality due to associated diseases: cerebrovascular disease, ischemic cardiopathy, and cardiac failure. The socioeconomic impact of high blood pressure in Spain was estimated during 1985 in primary, hospitalary and pharmaceutical health care, to provide a framework for decision making and to determine strategies for reducing the costs of this entity.

The methodology of analysis of the cost of the disease was followed with the aim of quantifying the socioeconomic consequences of an entity, disease or risk factor with prevalence being the focus of the study.

The socioeconomic impact estimated was situated between 95,000 and 124,000 millions of pesetas according to the different hypothesis adopted in the analysis of sensitivity. The direct health care costs represented between 2.6 and 3.9% of the global health care costs for Spain in 1985. Health care funding consumed by high blood pressure in primary health care was higher (between 4.5 and 6.7%) than hospital attendance (between 1.0 and 1.5%) and pharmaceutical care (between 2.3 and 3.5%), with respect to the total costs of each category.

The reduction of the costs related with high blood pressure in Spain must be obtained from improvement of efficacy of interventions carried out in health care education and primary health care. The economic evaluation of the primary and secondary prevention programs may aid in determining more cost-effective strategies.