World Hypertension Day: Contemporary issues faced in India

• Type of Material: Article
• Authors: Arun Pulikkottil Jose, Public Health Foundation of India; Dorairaj Prabhakaran, Emory University
• Language: English
• Date: 2019-05-01
• Publisher: WOLTERS KLUWER MEDKNOW PUBLICATIONS
• Publication Version: Final Published Version
• Copyright Statement: © 2019 Indian Journal of Medical Research
• License: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International
• Final Published Version (URL): http://dx.doi.org/10.4103/ijmr.IJMR_549_19
• Title of Journal or Parent Work: INDIAN JOURNAL OF MEDICAL RESEARCH
• Volume: 149
• Issue: 5
• Start Page: 567
• End Page: 570
• Keywords: Medicine, General & Internal; Life Sciences & Biomedicine; General & Internal Medicine; Research & Experimental Medicine; Science & Technology; Medicine, Research & Experimental; BLOOD-PRESSURE; Immunology
• Research Categories: Health Sciences, Immunology

Abstract

World Hypertension Day was initiated by the World Hypertension League in 2005 to raise awareness regarding high blood pressure (BP) and its complications. The day is celebrated on May 17 every year by countries across the globe in an attempt to curb the ‘silent killer’ that has long been recognized as one of the major risk factors for cardiovascular disease and premature deaths worldwide. According to the World Health Organization, in 2015, raised BP was responsible for 7.5 million deaths, about 12.8 per cent of the total of all deaths globally. The Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study of 2016 showed that high systolic BP, defined as >140 mmHg, was the second leading risk factor in terms of attributable disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) in men (122.2 million DALYs) after smoking and the leading risk factor in women (89.9 million DALYs).