The India hypertension control initiative

News: A project called the India Hypertension Control Initiative (IHCI) finds that nearly 23% out of 2.1 million Indians have uncontrolled blood pressure.

What is Hypertension?

Hypertension was defined as having systolic blood pressure level greater than or equal to 140 mmHg or diastolic blood pressure level greater than or equal to 90 mmHg or/and taking anti-hypertensive medication to lower his/her blood pressure.

What is the IHCI?

Recognising that hypertension is a serious, and growing, health issue in India, the Health Ministry, the Indian Council of Medical Research, State Governments, and WHO-India began a five-year initiative to monitor and treat hypertension.

India has committed to a “25 by 25″ goal, which aims to reduce premature mortality due to non-communicable diseases (NCDs) by 25% by 2025.

– One of the nine voluntary targets includes reducing the prevalence of high blood pressure by 25% by 2025.

The programme was launched in November 2017.

What has the IHCI found so far?

Its most important discovery so far is that nearly one-fourth of (23%) patients under the programme had uncontrolled blood pressure, and 27% did not return for a follow-up in the first quarter of 2021.

There were an estimated 20 crore adults with hypertension in the country.

To achieve India’s target of a 25% relative reduction in the prevalence of raised blood pressure, approximately 4.5 crore additional people with hypertension need to get their blood pressure under control by 2025.

How prevalent is the problem of hypertension?

Southern States have a higher prevalence of hypertension than the national average, according to the latest edition of the National Family Health Survey.

While 21.3% of women and 24% of men aged above 15 have hypertension in the country, the prevalence is the highest in Kerala where 32.8% men and 30.9% women have been diagnosed with hypertension.

Kerala is followed by Telangana where the prevalence is 31.4% in men and 26.1% in women.

The prevalence of hypertension is higher among Sikhs (37% for men and 31% for women), Jains (30% for men and 25% for women), and Christians (29% for men and 26% for women) than the rest.

Source: This post is based on the article “The India hypertension control initiative” published in The Hindu on 13th May 22.