02/12/2016
More than a billion people are now living with high blood pressure worldwide—most in low and middle-income countries, according to a new study led by Majid Ezzati, adjunct professor of global health at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Published November 15, 2016 in The Lancet, the study found that the number of people with high blood pressure has nearly doubled in the past 40 years, with the burden shifting to poorer countries—particularly in Asia, which was home to half of the world’s adults with high blood pressure in 2015. The United States, Canada, and South Korea had the lowest rates in the world.
During the past four decades, the highest worldwide blood pressure levels have shifted
from high-income countries to low-income countries in south Asia and sub-Saharan Africa
due to opposite trends, while blood pressure has been persistently high in central
and eastern Europe.
