It is the most common chronic disease in France and an important risk factor for cardiovascular disease. Nearly one in three adults suffer from high blood pressure and half of them are unaware of it, underlined this Tuesday, May 16, Public Health France, deploring the lack of recent progress in the face of this disease. Nearly 30% of adults are hypertensive, or 17 million people, indicates the health agency, which is based on two general population surveys and a survey of a panel of general practitioners and the National Health Data System.
Insufficient screening
Knowledge, treatment and control of hypertension remain “sub-optimal and have not seen any recent improvement, some indicators having even suffered a deterioration”, regrets Public Health France. Thus, only one out of two hypertensives is aware of their disease. A figure which remains, according to the health agency, far below the level of knowledge reached in other European or North American countries.
For the agency, this lack of knowledge can be explained in particular by insufficiently effective screening or the difficulty of understanding and acceptance of the diagnosis by patients when the disease is announced. Among the patients, only one in four has controlled blood pressure, she continues.
A Covid-19 effect
And if more than 1.6 million adults initiate antihypertensive treatment each year, “the Covid-19 crisis has had a significant impact with an 11% drop in these initiations in connection with a decrease in the use of care “.
In 2020, this decrease was particularly significant among women (-16%), even reaching more than a 30% drop among those aged 75 to 84 compared to the drop observed among men (-5%). And in 2021, contrary to what was observed in men, no catch-up was observed in women.
“Health policies in favor of the primary prevention of arterial hypertension, its screening, and its management must be put in place quickly to allow, as in other countries, a favorable evolution of the epidemiological indicators of the disease”, concludes Public Health France.