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

Abstract

Hypertension awareness and control is poor in low- and middle-income countries. Thus, implementing strategies to increase hypertension detection is needed. Colombia participated as one of the 92 countries involved in the third campaign of the May Measurement Month in 2019. Blood pressure (BP) was measured in 48 324 volunteers from 13 departments in Colombia. In total, 27.9% individuals were identified with hypertension. Of those with hypertension, 63.7% were aware of their condition, 60.0% were on antihypertensive medication, and 38.4% had controlled BP. These results showed low levels of awareness, treatment, and control of hypertension in this sample of subjects volunteered to participate, suggest the urgent necessity of implementing programmes to improve the diagnosis and management of hypertension in Colombia.

The Rationale for Using Fixed-Dose Combination Therapy in the Management of Hypertension in Colombia: A Narrative Review

“…The reported prevalence of hypertension in Colombia depends on the sampled population (Table 1 ), but hypertension affects between 28 and 44% of the adult population [ 10 , 11 , 15 – 18 ]. The prevalence increases with age [ 17 , 19 ], body mass index (BMI) [ 16 , 17 , 20 ], comorbidities [ 21 ], and correlates of low socioeconomic status, such as low education level and Afro-descendent ethnicity [ 15 , 17 , 18 ].…”

“…Among the modifiable risk factors, hypertension is responsible for the highest fraction of the population attributable risk (18.7%) for CVD in South America, ahead of obesity (15.4%), smoking (13.5%), and diabetes (5.3%) [ 8 ], and is a significant contributor to the risk of dementia in Latin America and the Caribbean (18.0% of the population attributable risk) [ 9 ]. Yet, rates of BP control in Colombia are low [ 10 , 11 ], possibly because of underutilization of combination therapy and poor patient adherence.…”

May Measurement Month: beyond boosting hypertension awareness

“…Considering the scale and robustness of the data, the increasing use of MMM-derived data to make assessments of the prevalence and control of hypertension and associated risk factors is unsurprising. To date, studies have assessed national-level MMM data from Nepal, 1 Colombia, 2 Greece, 3 and Hong Kong, 4 in addition to global-level data. 5 However, MMM implements an opportunistic screening strategy, and questions arise regarding the validity of the findings and their applicability to the general population.…”

Hipertensión arterial y riesgo cardiovascular

“…55 Datos no disponibles en los estudios; *Datos obtenidos de MMM 2018. Fuente: modificada de las referencias (39,41,44,51).…”

“…50 En 2018 MMM incluyó 35.548 pacientes, 26,7% eran hipertensos, de los cuales, 11,3% no estaban recibiendo tratamiento antihipertensivo, y 33,7% de los que tomaban medicamentos no tenía la PA controlada (tabla 5). 51 Los resultados obtenidos demostraron la necesidad de establecer programas para la detección de pacientes hipertensos con el objetivo de generar estrategias para mitigar eventos cardiovasculares. 52 Una fuente de datos importante para el país es el Fondo Colombiano de Enfermedades de Alto Costo, según el cual, la incidencia de HTA en Colombia es de 9,9 por cada 1.000 habitantes.…”