In India, 188.3 million people are currently suffering from high blood pressure.
According to the National Non-Communicable Disease Monitoring Survey conducted in May 2023, 72 percent of people with hypertension are not diagnosed and more than half the number of people who died from heart attacks, stroke, and chronic kidney diseases suffered from hypertension.
Rekha T R, a patient suffering from hypertension said “I used to feel severe headaches and I used to feel dizzy and vomiting tendencies but I didn’t think much of it then. I did self-treatment at first but when it got worse I went to see a doctor and he said I had hypertension.”
One of the main reasons hypertension is not diagnosed on time is that many people prefer self-treatment. Dr Prajwal KC, a cardiologist in the P.M. Santhosha multi-speciality hospital, Kengeri said, “A lot of people don’t diagnose diseases like hypertension on time because even when they get symptoms they prefer to do self-treatment.”
He also added that the delayed diagnosis of hypertension worsens the condition of the patients making it difficult for treatment as it could lead to heart attacks, strokes and chronic kidney diseases.
According to a report by the World Health Organization (WHO), 188.3 million people are currently suffering from hypertension in India.
Dr. Chandrashekar Kottaghi, Assistant Director of the Institute of Public Health said, “The only way to treat hypertension properly is by detecting it early on and for that people will have to do regular checkups.”
Lathadevi Chilgod, a Research Officer at the Institute of Public Health said, “The Ministry of Health has a community-based assessment checklist for the early detection of non-communicable diseases. It is used to identify these diseases at an early age. Individuals who are 35 and above who have the risk of developing NCDs are screened for these diseases.”
