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May Measurement Month 2017: Results of 39 national blood pressure screening programmes
Neil R Poulter1, Claudio Borghi2, Rafael R Castillo3
1Imperial Clinical Trials Unit, Imperial College London, Stadium House, 68 Wood Lane, London, UK.
Insights
May Measurement Month screened over 1.2 million people globally to raise awareness of high blood pressure (hypertension). The campaign identified significant numbers of untreated and uncontrolled hypertension cases worldwide.
Area of Science:
- Cardiology
- Public Health
- Epidemiology
Background:
- Raised blood pressure (hypertension) is a leading global cause of mortality.
- A significant portion of individuals with hypertension remain undiagnosed, untreated, or inadequately controlled.
- The International Society of Hypertension launched May Measurement Month to address this critical public health issue.
Purpose of the Study:
- To raise global awareness of high blood pressure.
- To screen a large population for hypertension and identify untreated/uncontrolled cases.
- To present national results and discuss campaign methodologies.
Main Methods:
- A global campaign involving blood pressure screening across 80 countries in 2017.
- Data collection from over 1.2 million screened individuals.
- Analysis of hypertension prevalence, treatment status, and control levels.
Main Results:
- Over 100,000 individuals identified with untreated hypertension.
- More than 150,000 individuals on anti-hypertensive treatment found to have uncontrolled blood pressure.
- National results from 39 countries were analyzed and are presented.
Conclusions:
- May Measurement Month successfully screened a large international cohort.
- The campaign highlighted substantial gaps in hypertension awareness, treatment, and control.
- Lessons learned are informing subsequent iterations of the campaign in 2018 and 2019.
Abstract:
Raised blood pressure is the biggest single risk factor responsible for mortality worldwide. Despite this, the majority of people with hypertension are unaware of having it, are untreated, or are on treatment but uncontrolled. May Measurement Month is a global campaign initiated by the International Society of Hypertension with the aim of raising awareness of high blood pressure. In the first year of the campaign in 2017, over 1.2 million people were screened in 80 countries across the world, finding over 100 000 people with hypertension who were not on treatment and over 150 000 people on anti-hypertensive treatment who were not controlled. The individual national results from 39 countries are presented in this supplement. In this article, we discuss the background to the campaign, along with some of the logistical and methodological challenges that were faced in setting up the campaign, and in collecting and analysing the data from such a large cross-sectional study. With the lessons learned from the 2017 campaign, the campaign was repeated in 2018 and is to be repeated again in 2019.
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