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Only 1 in 5 persons with hypertension seeks treatment in the public sector: Study

Rajeev Choudhury

Only 1 in 5 persons with hypertension seek treatment in the public sector, researchers of a recent study published in the Journal of Human Hypertension reported.

The study conducted by the researchers from All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) New Delhi and the National Centre for Disease Informatics and Research (NCDIR), Bengaluru, analysed the National Non-communicable Disease Monitoring Survey (2017-18) data and found that 28.5% of those surveyed were suffering from high blood pressure.

However, the awareness about hypertension was poor among those affected the researchers wrote in their paper.

Women and those above 50 years of age were more aware of high BP status compared to men and those under 50, they further wrote.

The survey results reveal that while women were 1.63 times more likely to be aware of their high BP status, compared to men, those above 50 years of age were two and half times more likely to be aware of the disease compared to those below 50 years of age.

Similarly, the not working, professionals were more aware of their high BP status than labourers as well as those in the higher wealth index groups, the researchers said.

One of the interesting findings of the study was that only one-fifth (21.9%) of the people with hypertension were managed at or getting their medicines (18.1%) from a public health facility, the researchers noted.

Furthermore, there was very little utilisation of the AYUSH system alone in the treatment of hypertension, the survey data revealed.

The survey further revealed that the behavioural modification advice provided by the healthcare providers was poor both in urban and rural areas.

While, less than half of those diagnosed with high BP was advised on diets, only a little over two in five patients (41.6%) were advised to reduce their salt intake and only 9% of the patients were asked to quit alcohol, the researchers said.

Commenting on the healthcare system of the country, the researchers noted that India has a mixed healthcare system, where the private sector which is predominant remains largely unregulated and poorly coordinated has posed significant challenges in addressing chronic NCDs adequately.

The National Hypertension Control Initiative, a partnership between the Ministry of Health, ICMR, WHO-India, State Governments and Resolve to Save Lives, launched in 2017, has demonstrated a substantial improvement in BP controls through five intervention strategies, they said.

However, such an initiative did not work when private practitioners were involved owing to various factors including, preferences for fixed-dose combinations and fear of losing patients to others, the researchers further noted in their paper.

The researchers concluded that poor population-level hypertension control needs strengthening of hypertension services in the Universal Health Coverage package and involving the private sector remains a key intervention to improve population-level control of hypertension.


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