Educational Interventions May Promote Better Blood Pressure Control in Russia

Abstract

Control of hypertension still remains an unresolved clinical problem. Despite marked improvement in both diagnostic opportunities and availability of integrated and well-tolerated antihypertensive drug therapies, several reports have independently and consistently showed a relatively high prevalence of the disease (ranging between 25 and 35%) and persistently low rates of blood pressure control (about 35-45%) [1][2][3]. This, of course, may have potentially harmful consequences for the sustainability of Health Care Systems, since hypertension is the most common cardiovascular risk factor in the general population, and it is responsible for the vast majority of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality, worldwide [4].Indeed, hypertension-related clinical conditions, including coronary artery disease, stroke, renal failure, congestive heart failure and other metabolic abnormalities (mostly diabetes), heavily affect quality of life and markedly impact on costs related to complex pharmacological therapies and hospitalizations. In addition, the progressively increasing incidence of other cardiovascular and metabolic risk factors, such as smoking, obesity, dyslipidaemia, and metabolic syndrome, and the wide-spread adoption of unhealthy habits (e.g. sedentary life, unbalanced diet, physical and mental stress) further promote the risk of developing sustained blood pressure rise and accelerate the progression of hypertension-related atherosclerotic diseases. On the basis of these considerations, closer attention might be devoted by physicians and health care providers for implementing strategies aimed at preventing the development and improving awareness of hypertension, respectively.Evidence demonstrated that the first step for reducing the burden of a given disease, namely hypertension, in a setting of clinical practice should be an appraisal on prevalence, awareness, treatment and control rates of this clinical condition. With these purposes, numerous observational studies and epidemiological registries have been progressively made available during the last decades in various countries, worldwide. Information obtained from these analyses are of potential clinical relevance, since they can be effectively implemented by recommendations derived from international guidelines, in order to improve the clinical management and achieve the recommended blood pressure targets. In particular, recent studies have demonstrated that the implementation of rational and effective therapeutic regimes, mostly based on combination therapies, may promote higher rates of blood pressure control also in the setting of real practice [5][6][7].In this issue of High Blood Pressure and Cardiovascular Prevention, Kiselev and co-authors reported a detailed and comprehensive analysis of clinical factors that may have potential impact on the achievement of the blood pressure goals in a large sample of adult individuals with hypertension in the Ivanovo, Russia [8]. This study is part of the larger Russian Registry of Hypertension, Coronary Artery Disease...