{"id":930354,"date":"2026-10-12T14:58:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-12T14:58:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/930354\/"},"modified":"2026-10-12T14:58:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-12T14:58:11","slug":"better-blood-pressure-control-could-save-518000-lives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/930354\/","title":{"rendered":"Better Blood Pressure Control Could Save 518,000 Lives"},"content":{"rendered":"

BETTER management of high blood pressure could prevent more than half a million cardiovascular deaths each year across 20 countries, according to preliminary research from the US.<\/p>\n

The findings highlight substantial gaps in preventive healthcare and suggest that expanding access to established treatments could significantly reduce avoidable deaths across the globe.<\/p>\n

Closing the Prevention Gap<\/p>\n

Researchers examined six preventive services: blood pressure control, appropriate statin treatment, glucose control in people with diabetes, and screening for colorectal, breast, and cervical cancers.<\/p>\n

A total of 20 countries were included in the research, none of which were low-income countries, and were each selected for having the highest numbers of deaths from non-communicable diseases<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Researchers used age- and sex-specific information from international sources, including the Global Burden of Disease network and World Health Organization databases.<\/p>\n

The analysis estimated potential reductions in deaths if these services reached approximately 80% of eligible patients, matching levels achieved by high-performing US health systems.<\/p>\n

Improved hypertension control offered the largest estimated benefit, potentially preventing 518,476 cardiovascular deaths annually.<\/p>\n

Appropriate statin treatment could also prevent an estimated 340,682 deaths, while improved glucose control could prevent 309,520.<\/p>\n

Additionally, increasing colorectal cancer screening coverage to 80% could also prevent an estimated 206,767 colorectal cancer deaths each year.<\/p>\n

It should be noted that these figures represent separate modelling estimates and should not be added together as a combined total.<\/p>\n

Opportunities to Improve Care<\/p>\n

The study identified considerable scope to strengthen prevention in the included countries.<\/p>\n

Only around one in five adults with hypertension in the populations studied had blood pressure controlled below 140\/90 mmHg.<\/p>\n

Scott Pilla, Associate Professor of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, USA, highlighted particular opportunities is some countries for improvement.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cWhile there were substantial gaps in the use of preventive healthcare services for these conditions in all countries, lower-middle-income countries had large opportunities for improvement, with low rates of hypertension control and high cholesterol management and minimal use of cancer screening tests.\u201d<\/p>\n

The preliminary results underline the potential impact of improving delivery of existing preventive care.<\/p>\n

However, achieving wider coverage will require willingness and compliance from governments, as well as practical approaches to identifying eligible patients, supporting treatment, and overcoming barriers to access.<\/p>\n

Some countries involved had limited data on preventive service use, and the analysis did not establish specific strategies for increasing uptake.<\/p>\n

The findings were presented as a conference abstract and have not yet been published as a peer-reviewed full manuscript. They should therefore be interpreted as projected benefits under a modelled scenario, rather than observed reductions in deaths or a complete worldwide estimate.<\/p>\n

Reference<\/p>\n

American Heart Association. Better blood pressure control could prevent over 518,000 annual deaths worldwide. News-Medical. 11 October 2026. Available here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BETTER management of high blood pressure could prevent more than half a million cardiovascular deaths each year across…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":930355,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[49,48,84],"class_list":["post-930354","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-health"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/930354","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=930354"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/930354\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/930355"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=930354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=930354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=930354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}