High Blood Pressure Meds Could Prevent Some 200,000 Deaths Each Year in China

China could prevent nearly 1 million heart attacks and strokes and 200,000 deaths from cardiovascular disease each year by expanding treatment of hypertension, says a new modeling study by researchers at Columbia University Medical Center. The study is published in today’s PLOS Medicine.

Hypertension is the most common cardiovascular risk factor in China; about 325 million adults have high blood pressure but less than half of them are aware of their condition.

The model simulated the effect of treating all individuals in China with hypertension and found that between 600,000 and 1 million cardiovascular events could be prevented. With low-cost medications, the program would be cost-effective.

“China introduced price controls on basic medications for high blood pressure, but enforcement has been week. Our results show that treating hypertension is cost-effective only when medicines are affordable to patients,” says lead author Andrew Moran, MD, a Herbert Irving Assistant Professor of Medicine at Columbia University Medical Center.

Read more about the paper here.