Ghanaians urged to ensure regular check-ups to reduce hypertension

The World Hypertension League (WHL) and Stroke Association Support Network-Ghana (SASNET-GHANA) have encouraged all Ghanaians to go for regularly Blood Pressure (BP) checkups for early detection, prevention and treatments of hypertension.

The group also called for the expansion of the National Health Insurance Scheme(NHIS) and development of measures to help reduce health service  inequities in the country.

This was contained in a News release issued by the SASNET-Ghana to commemorate the observation of the World Hypertension Day.

This year’s World Hypertension Day is being observed on  the theme , “Know Your Numbers “ which aims at increasing high blood pressure (BP) awareness in all populations around the world especially in Ghana.

The theme is based on global statistics, indicating that only 50 per cent of individuals with hypertension were aware that they actually had high BP and only few people knew much about the disease.

According to the release, in Ghana about 16 million people between ages of 15 to 49 years are currently living with hypertension.

Four among 10 people in Ghana are living with hypertension and the disease contributes to 43 per cent of the total deaths in the country and to stroke cases which contributes 58 per cent of the total deaths in Ghana.

The release indicated that in Ghana, lifestyles that caused hypertension were high sodium dietary, obesity,low fruits and vegetables consumption,  physical inactiveness and excessive alcohol intake.

Hypertension equally contributes to 13 per cent of the total deaths in Ghana, 40 per cent of deaths in people with diabetes and 50 per cent of heart diseases, stroke and heart failures.

SASNET-Ghana called for the establishment of high capacity community screening programmes for BP for those at high risk areas and promotion of routine measurement of BP by healthcare professionals at all clinical encounters.

Source: GNA