Euro blood pressure problem

Wednesday November 12th, 2008

High blood pressure is posing a major threat to health across Europe and immediate action is needed to tackle it, say experts.

Crucially, a large proportion of those affected are unaware that they have dangerously high blood pressure (hypertension), warn the authors of a new study. Dr Simona Costanzo of the Catholic University of Campobasso, Italy and colleagues studied a sample of 1,604 men and women in England, Belgium and Italy. Of these, 24 per cent were hypertensive.

Surprisingly, people from England had the lowest rates of hypertension. Previously a "gradient" had been found, in which cardiovascular risk was lower in Southern Europe.

"This inversion is surprising," said researcher Licia Iacoviello. "It may reflect the ongoing changes of lifestyle habits. Paradoxically, northern European countries, where cardiovascular risk was higher than in Italy, are now modifying their habits, getting closer to the ancient Italian food and lifestyle culture, thus living a healthier life. On the contrary, in Italy traditional habits are being lost, and we may be observing the negative effects on health."

Women had lower rates of hypertension than men, possibly due to more frequent contact with healthcare practitioners.

However, Dr Iacoviello warns: "We fear Europe is facing a dangerous situation. Hypertension is a critical causative factor for serious diseases like myocardial infarction (heart attacks) and stroke, but it is still grossly underestimated. So we need urgent and intensive initiatives in this field, introducing new and effective strategies in controlling this threat."

Although in England, hypertension is managed better than in some countries, researcher Dr Francesco Cappuccio believes "we still have too many patients not adequately treated and the incidence of hypertension is rising still."

The study appears in the Journal of Hypertension

Tags: Europe | Heart Health

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