As per WHO Nepal, Nearly 1 in 4 people in Nepal suffer from hypertension, and less than 5% of hypertension patients have the condition under control.
Screening asymptomatic individuals is important to identify undiagnosed hypertension. However, there are certain gray areas in screening for hypertension and the lack of national guidelines for effective screening of hypertension led to the formulation of this consensus. 42 experts from cardiology and allied fields discussed the current evidence and formulated a unified consensus to guide primary care physicians in the effective screening of hypertension in asymptomatic individuals.
Consensus conclusion:
1. In #Nepal, hypertension diagnosis is mostly limited to clinics or hospitals with limited active ongoing community screening programs. This leads to unawareness, underdiagnosis, undertreatment, and thereby poor control of hypertension.
2. Through this consensus, we identify that hypertension screening undertaken in adults from the age of 18 years can be effective for early diagnosis and interventions that will help reduce the community burden of CVDs.
3. Moreover, regular rescreening as per current blood pressure level can aid in the early detection of hypertension or potentially uncontrolled hypertension.
4. Hypertension screening is cost-effective even in resource-poor settings and should be implemented adequately to identify the disease at the earliest with the involvement of all healthcare stakeholders in the community.
Glenmark Pharmaceuticals being leaders in #Hypertension therapy took initiatives to spread awareness on early diagnosis in Nepal under “Livemore with BP in control” and “Take charge@18” initiatives.
I.Livemore emphasises organ protection with early diagnosis and management of hypertension, there by living life more
II.Take charge@18 emphasises the right age to screen for blood pressure in Nepal is 18 years.
