200 mn Indians had high BP in 2015: Lancet

India has recorded a whopping 200 million people suffering from high blood pressure, a key risk factor for heart attack. According to the same study, China reported 226 million people in 2015.

The study, published in the journal, The Lancet, analysed changes in blood pressure from nearly 20 million people in every country in the world between 1975 and 2015.

“High blood pressure is the leading risk factor for stroke and heart disease, and kills around 7.5 million people worldwide every year. Most of these deaths are experienced in the developing world,” said lead author Majid Ezzati, Professor at the Imperial College London.

A compilation of 1479 studies has measured the blood pressures of 191 million adults. The number of adults with raised blood pressure increased from 594 million in 1975 to 113 billion in 2015, with the increase largely in low-income and middle-income countries.

Blood pressure is a multifaceted trait, affected by nutrition, environment, and behaviour throughout the life course, including fetal and early childhood nutrition and growth, adiposity, specific components of diet, especially sodium and potassium intakes, alcohol use, smoking, physical activity, air pollution, lead, noise, psychosocial stress, and the use of blood pressure lowering drugs.

“High blood pressure is no longer related to affluence — as it was in 1975 — but is now a major health issue linked with poverty,” said Ezzati