One-Third Of Adults In China Suffer From High Blood Pressure

A research published on Thursday revealed that more than one-third of adults in China suffer from a high blood pressure condition. Of these, only one-fifth are able to manage their condition successfully. In China, strokes are the leading cause of death; one in twenty people die of strokes. And with the uncontrolled high blood pressure conditions, it becomes a serious risk factor. To add to this, less than a quarter of people take medication for the same and, those who take medication found the treatment to be ineffective.

A leading medical journal named The Lancet revealed that the availability of these medicines is patchy and present in few pharmacies. One in twelve primary healthcare pharmacies does not stock any medication for the same.

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Along with the problem of availability, researchers also noticed that "despite the availability of low-cost antihypertensive medications, higher-cost medications were more often prescribed".

Only a handful of sites stocked medication which was both 'high-value', recommended and low cost.

Increasing high blood pressure conditions in China is "likely because of an ageing population, urbanisation, dietary changes and obesity", says Professor Lixin Jiang, from Fuwai Hospital in Beijing in response to the study.

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Around 1.7 million people from 31 different provinces in mainland China between 35-75 years of age were screened for this research, which was an initiative to improve the cardiovascular disease risk factors in China.

The China Patient-Centered Evaluative Assessment of Cardiac Events (PEACE) Million Persons Project included an assessment of anti-hypertensive medications of over 3300 primary healthcare sites.

"It is simple deficiencies in the country's health system that make a large contribution to the disease burden," says Therese Hesketh of the UCL Institute for Global Health and Xudong Zhou of Zhejiang University School of Public Health, Hangzhou, in a joint commentary for the study.

"This situation is worrying, not least because prevention and control of hypertension have been a high priority in China for more than two decades.