May Measurement Month 2018: an analysis of blood pressure screening campaign results in India

Abstract

Hypertension (HTN) is the greatest attributable risk factor for cardiovascular disease in India. Recent studies have reported the crude prevalence of HTN in India to be 25.3%. In the May Measurement Month (MMM) screening campaign of 2017 conducted in India, 31.8% had HTN. In order to ratify earlier results, and further understand the awareness and control levels of HTN in India, organizations that participated in MMM 2017 decided to participate in the MMM global screening initiative of the International Society of Hypertension for a 2nd consecutive year. A total of 345 234 individuals were screened in MMM 2018. There were more than 1000 screening locations that included hospitals, clinics, workplaces, and special health camps organized across the country. After applying multiple imputation, a total of 111 462 (32.3%) individuals had HTN of whom 63 415 (55.6%) were aware of HTN and 61 646 (55.3%) were on antihypertensive medicines, out of which 15 583 (25.3%) were uncontrolled. Overall 57 864 (41.3%) hypertensives were uncontrolled. About half (44.7%) of hypertensive population in India were not on treatment. Around two-thirds (65.7%, n = 226 924) had not measured their blood pressure (BP) in last 12 months and 64% measured their BP for the first time in their life during the campaign, which strongly indicates the need for large scale awareness drives. This study suggests that opportunistic periodic public health screening at a national level is needed to increase HTN detection, treatment, control, and countrywide awareness in highly populated nations like India.

May Measurement Month 2021: an analysis of blood pressure screening campaign results from India

“…Over the years, MMM has proven to be an important initiative towards the detection of raised BP. The proportion of hypertension detected in India in MMM19 5 (29.4%) was similar to that reported in MMM17 8 (31.2%) and MMM18 7 (32.3%), rates that were similar to those reported at the global level in MMM 2018 9 and 2017 10 (34.9% and 33.4%, respectively). However, the data collected in MMM21 performed during the COVID-19 pandemic were subject to several important differences in the population being screened and prevailing circumstances including constant lockdowns and lack of human and logistic resources.…”

“…The trends since 2017 have been consistent as the years progressed. In 2017, 31.8% of the total participants (240 376) were found to be hypertensive, in 2018, this was at 32.3% 7 ( n = 345, 234), whilst in 2019, a frequency of 29.4% was found in a total of 362 708 participants. 5 Inspired by the results of these past MMMs, we participated again in MMM 2021 with an objective not only to look for undiagnosed hypertension but also to raise awareness of hypertension among the Indian population, especially after the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.…”

Care Cascades for Hypertension in Low-Income Settings: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

“…Overall, 16% of hypertensive subjects had their hypertension controlled (95% CI: 0.14–0.18). Three studies reported a control of hypertension <2% (Angola [ 27 ], Cameroon [ 41 ] and Ghana [ 49 ]), whereas two studies in Bangladesh [ 31 , 32 ], one in India [ 68 ] and two in Iran [ 78 , 80 ] found >40% of controlled hypertensive subjects. In LICs the percentage of controlled hypertension was lower than LMICs (11% vs .…”

May Measurement Month 2019: an analysis of blood pressure screening results from India

“… 6 Hypertension was defined as a systolic BP ≥ 140 mmHg or a diastolic BP ≥ 90 mmHg or on hypertension treatment. 5 May Measurement Month 2019 captured data that were not collected in previous years, including number of antihypertensive drug classes being consumed, location of screening site, use of aspirin or statin, and if the participants were fasting.…”