Potential strategies for the improvement of hypertension control and future research in the Baltic countries

Abstract

There is no doubt that worldwide efforts to con-trol cardiovascular risk factors have made an impacton the burden of coronary heart disease (CHD) andstroke mortality. Studies of hypertension, hyperc-holesterolemia, smoking and diabetes have elevatedpublic awareness and the need for subsequent treat-ment. However, with dramatic reductions in coronaryheart disease and stroke mortality, cardiovasculardiseases still remain the leading cause of death inmost industrial nations. It is worthwhile mentioningthat more measures can be implemented to combatand decrease mortality from CHD and stroke. Hyper-tension is one of the most important cardiovascularrisk factors.Hypertension is a major health problem in theBaltic countries. High blood pressure (BP) is widelyprevalent in this region. In Lithuania, a survey car-ried out within the framework of the CountrywideIntegrated Non-communicable Diseases Interven-tion Programme (CINDI) indicated that 59.3% ofmen and 42.1% of women aged 25–64 had BP ≥140/90 mm Hg and/or were on treatment [1]. Theobtained data revealed that one third of hyperten-sives were unaware of having hypertension, onethird of them were under treatment and only 4.4%of hypertensive subjects had their BP lowered to< 140/90 mm Hg. The situation has improved in re-cent years: the percentage of patients aware of el-evated BP has increased from 44.1% in 1987 to63.5% in 1999 and the number of hypertensives onmedication has risen from 29.0% to 33.5% [2,3]. [...].