60% of people aged 65 and above have high blood pressure! Survey of 10 million people undergoing physical examinations in China

Ning Yi, Li Liming from Peking University School of Public Health and others reported in this journal a hypertension survey report on 11,065,907 people in 412 physical examination centers in 28 provinces across the country in 2018.

The study showed that the standardized prevalence of hypertension in the physical examination population was 21.6%, which was only 1.6% lower than the results of the China Hypertension Survey conducted from 2012 to 2015.

A survey of about 18,000 employed persons conducted by Wang Zengwu and others and published previously in our journal found that the standardized prevalence of hypertension was 25.2%.

However, it is worth noting that the awareness, treatment and control rates of hypertension among the physical examination population are even lower than the data from the China Hypertension Survey.

The awareness rate of hypertension among the physical examination population was 33.8%, the treatment rate was 25%, and the control rate was only 9.7%.

The Chinese Hypertension Survey showed that the awareness rate of hypertension was 51.6%, the treatment rate was 45.8%, and the control rate was 16.8%.

Comparison of the prevalence, awareness, treatment and control rates of hypertension between the physical examination population and the Chinese Hypertension Survey

The author believes that the awareness, treatment and control rates among the physical examination population are relatively low, which may be because the physical examination population is mainly composed of professional people, who have a fast pace of life, high work pressure, and pay less attention to health and disease.

The prevalence of hypertension is high in the north and low in the south: Hebei, Liaoning and Inner Mongolia have the highest

The prevalence of hypertension also shows a trend of being higher in the north and lower in the south. The three provinces with the highest prevalence of hypertension are Hebei Province, Liaoning Province, and Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, with standardized prevalence of hypertension being 27.8%, 27.4%, and 27.0%, respectively, much higher than those in the southern region.

Researchers pointed out that this may be because northerners have higher sodium intake, higher rates of overweight and obesity, more alcohol consumption, and less physical activity. The awareness, treatment, and control rates of hypertension in women are significantly higher than those in men.

Hypertension detection rate among physical examination population in various provinces of China in 2018

The situation of hypertension prevention and control among young and middle-aged people is worrying

Compared with the elderly group, the awareness, treatment and control rates of hypertension in the young and middle-aged people undergoing physical examinations are also lower, which suggests that hypertension is not well detected, treated and controlled in the young and middle-aged population.

Awareness, treatment and control rates of different ages and genders among the physical examination population in 2018

The authors pointed out that as the main labor force population in society, poor detection, treatment and control of hypertension in young and middle-aged people will cause this group to face huge potential risks of cardiovascular disease in the future, which will bring heavy socioeconomic burden to society.

In addition, researchers also found that the prevalence of hypertension increases with age, reaching 64.8% in people over 65 years old.

The prevalence rate of women over 60 years old is close to or even higher than that of men of the same age, which suggests that the management of prehypertension should be strengthened in this age group.

The study also found that the prevalence of hypertension in obese men is three times that of those with normal weight (45.0% vs. 16.4%), and the prevalence of hypertension in obese women is four times that of those with normal weight (42.9% vs. 10.1%).

Researchers emphasize that overweight and obese people should be the key group for hypertension prevention and control.

The researchers believe that this study supports the use of data from large-scale physical examination populations to continuously monitor and understand the status and trends of hypertension prevalence across the country in the future.

The mean age of the study participants was 41.4 years, and the mean systolic/diastolic blood pressure was 123.0/75.0 mmHg.

Source: China Circulation Magazine