Epidemiology of hypertension among Chinese in Taiwan

A series of population surveys in Taiwan have found that hypertension was present in 14.1% in 1976 and in 14.8% in 1984 in those aged above 18, and in 33.4% in 1976 and in 31.4% in 1987 in the elderly. In 1976, 4.5% of hypertensives aged 18 and over had good blood pressure control and in 1982 this figure was still only 4.9%. The outcome among 3037 untreated hypertensives out of a general population of 17,000 in southern Taiwan showed that 49.9% of those hypertensives died in the 22-year follow-up period. The annual death rate from stroke was 5.9/1000/year in untreated hypertensives but only 0.8/1000/year in normotensives. Compliance rate for treatment of hypertension in Taiwan showed that 81.6% of patients had good compliance under a free-of-charge programme with 86.1% of them having their blood pressure under control. In a comparison of the efficacy of antihypertensive drugs as first-line, propranolol (40.8%) proved to be more efficacious than trichlormethiazide (33.2%) in Taiwanese hypertensives. The difference however was not statistically significant.