May Measurement Month 2021: an analysis of blood pressure screening results from Malawi
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
May Measurement Month (MMM) is a global initiative aiming at raising awareness and screening people for blood pressure (BP) for free. Malawi started participating in 2017 due to our membership with the International Society of Hypertension, and this was done mainly to raise awareness of high BP, which could be of benefit to the population. An opportunistic cross-sectional survey of participants aged 18 years and above was carried out from May to September 2021 in Blantyre and Lilongwe. All BP measurements, definition of hypertension, and statistical analysis followed the standard MMM protocol. A total of 7074 participants took part with 4348 (61.5%) being male and 2726 (38.5%) female. A total of 1525 (21.6%) participants were found to have hypertension. Of these, 84 (5.5%) were aware that they had the condition, and 81 (5.3%) of those with hypertension were on antihypertensive treatment. Of those on antihypertensive treatment, 61 (76.5%) had controlled BP. The screenings were done in just two districts and a few locations, which therefore are not representative of the whole country. This shows there is a significant need to expand screening opportunities within Malawi for early detection of hypertension to have a greater impact on the country as far as the fight against hypertension is concerned.
Date Issued
2024-06
Date Acceptance
2024-07-01
Citation
Eur Heart J Suppl, 2024, 26 (Supplement 3), pp.iii55-iii57
ISSN
1520-765X
Publisher
Oxford University Press
Start Page
iii55
End Page
iii57
Journal / Book Title
Eur Heart J Suppl
Volume
26
Issue
Supplement 3
Copyright Statement
© The Author(s) 2024. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the European Society of Cardiology.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License (https://
creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium,
provided the original work is properly cited. For commercial re-use, please contact reprints@oup.com for reprints and translation rights for
reprints. All other permissions can be obtained through our RightsLink service via the Permissions link on the article page on our site—for
further information please contact journals.permissions@oup.com
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License (https://
creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium,
provided the original work is properly cited. For commercial re-use, please contact reprints@oup.com for reprints and translation rights for
reprints. All other permissions can be obtained through our RightsLink service via the Permissions link on the article page on our site—for
further information please contact journals.permissions@oup.com
License URL
Identifier
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/39055593
PII: suae056
Subjects
Blood pressure
Control
Hypertension
Screening
Treatment
Publication Status
Published
Coverage Spatial
England
Article Number
suae056
Date Publish Online
2024-07-24