- Analysis of data from 20 countries suggests that improving preventive care for hypertension could prevent more than 500,000 deaths per year from cardiovascular disease.
- Better management of cholesterol and blood sugar could also prevent a total of nearly 650,000 deaths per year.
- An increase in colon cancer screening would prevent more than 200,000 deaths per year.
The finding comes after researchers conducted a modeling analysis of health data from 20 countries that recorded the highest number of deaths from noncommunicable diseases.
Noncommunicable diseases cause about three out of five deaths worldwide, and cardiovascular diseases account for more of these deaths than other chronic diseases such as diabetes or cancer.
The analysis aimed to estimate how many lives could be saved by increasing the delivery of six specific forms of preventive medicine:
The research was presented at the American Heart Association Hypertension Conference.
High blood pressure, also known as hypertension, is a major contributor to deaths from cardiovascular disease worldwide.
Left untreated, it can damage blood vessels and narrow the inside of arteries, making them susceptible to blockage. Over time, this can increase the risk of serious illnesses, such as coronary heart disease.
“Previous research has confirmed that following the evidence-based recommendations in the latest guidelines can reduce the risk of death from high blood pressure and also reduce the risk of other serious illnesses, such as heart failure, stroke and dementia,” said
“In this study, we analyzed existing data to assess whether increasing use of preventive health services against noncommunicable diseases in 20 countries around the world could reduce cardiovascular deaths,” explained study author Scott Pilla, MD, MHS, in the press release.
These countries were a mix of upper and lower middle income countries.
Researchers assessed the use of preventive services against key guidelines, looking at health goals and the number of people likely to be eligible to receive the services.
For example, the blood pressure management goal was a level below 140/90 millimeters of mercury (mmHg), and adults aged 45 to 75 were eligible for colon cancer screening.
The researchers calculated what the outcomes would be each year if levels of preventive care were increased from their current levels until they were provided to about 80% of eligible patients.
“We found that expanding high blood pressure treatment to more people prevented the greatest number of deaths, followed by broader use of statin medications for high cholesterol and blood sugar management in people with type 1 or type 2 diabetes,” Pilla said.
Researchers found that about one in five adults with high blood pressure had their blood pressure under control and below 140/90 mmHg.
It is estimated that an increase in preventive care from 20% to 80% would prevent 518,476 deaths from cardiovascular disease each year.
Elsewhere, increasing the use of statins for cholesterol management from 16% to 80% of cases would prevent about 340,682 deaths, and improving blood sugar control in diabetes would prevent about 309,520 deaths.
Along with cancer screening, it is the increase in colon cancer screening that has prevented most deaths. An increase from 14% to 80% would prevent approximately 206,767 cancer deaths.
The study shows there are many opportunities for patients to receive more preventive care.
The researcher found that the following percentages of patients received recommended levels of care:
- patients with hypertension whose blood pressure was controlled – 20%
- patients with high cholesterol receiving statins: 16%
- diabetic patients with blood sugar levels at recommended levels: 39%
- Eligible patients undergoing recommended colon cancer screening: 14-26%.
“While there are substantial gaps in the use of preventive health services for these conditions across all countries, lower-middle-income countries had great room for improvement, with low rates of control of hypertension and high cholesterol and minimal use of cancer screening tests,” Pilla said.
Although this analysis sheds useful light on areas where clinicians can seek to improve outcomes, it does not provide any suggestions for how access to important preventive care can be expanded.
Future research will be needed to find effective ways to close these gaps, as well as to explore the needs in countries with different income levels.
Meanwhile, these results clearly show how important managing high blood pressure can be.
“Treating high blood pressure to goal leads to longer and also healthier lives,” Jones said. “This study should prompt clinicians and patients to pay more attention to the appropriate management of high blood pressure using both lifestyle measures and medications.” »
Medical news today asked Opel Baker, MBChB, a general practitioner at the Mayfield Clinic, who was not involved in the study, what he thinks the biggest barriers to preventive care might be.
“I think one of the biggest barriers to preventive care is that people often don’t feel bad and therefore don’t see the urgency in getting checked out,” Baker told us. “Hypertension is a classic example because it can develop silently for years, without obvious symptoms, while increasing the risk of heart disease and stroke.
“From a patient’s perspective, it’s easy to put a blood pressure check or a routine doctor’s appointment at the bottom of the list when everything is going well,” he said.
MNT also spoke to Nissi Suppogu, MD, a board-certified cardiologist and medical director of the Women’s Heart Center at MemorialCare Heart & Vascular Institute at Long Beach Medical Center in Long Beach, California, who was also not involved in the study.
Suppogu agreed that the lack of symptoms was a key problem. “Other barriers include the cost of health care, limited access to providers, and difficulty maintaining healthy habits,” she added.
Baker said clinicians have an important role to play in making preventative care more accessible, identifying people at risk and helping them understand why early intervention is important:
“Ultimately, prevention needs to feel manageable and not overwhelming. Small, consistent steps, like checking blood pressure regularly, staying active, and making realistic dietary changes, can make a significant difference. The challenge is making these steps part of everyday health care, not something people only think about when a problem develops.”
Gn Health
