Epidemiology
Waqas Matyana
In 2017–18 in Australia, just over 4.3 million people aged over 18 years, excluding those who were already treated for hypertension, had measured high blood pressure. Men were more likely to have high blood pressure than women (25.4% and 20.3% respectively) and high blood pressure was shown to increase with age. Around 45.2% of persons aged 75 years and over were measured with high blood pressure, compared with <10% of people aged 18–24 years.4
Elevated blood pressure is a major risk factor for CVD, potentially resulting in myocardial infarction (MI), stroke, heart failure and chronic kidney disease (CKD).2 A 2015 meta-analysis involving nearly 200,000 patients across 55 randomised controlled trials demonstrated that reducing blood pressure is accompanied by significant reductions in the relative and absolute risk of stroke and major cardiovascular events.5
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