Brief History of the Spanish Society and League Against Hypertension

Abstract

ALTHOUGH the Spanish Society and League Against Hypertension was not officially formed until 1996, its history dates back to the creation of the Spanish Hypertension League (SHL) in 1975 and the Spanish Society of Hypertension (SSH) in 1987. Dr Joaquin Mouriz Garcia, who in 1975 was medical director of Merck, Sharp, and Dohme in Spain, initiated formation of the SHL. Six of the 16 founding members were nephrologists, attesting to the important role of Spanish nephrologists in initiation of the League. Their involvement continued to grow as the two hypertension organizations merged in 1996 to become a single association combining volunteerism and science. At the time the League was founded, knowledge of arterial hypertension was very poor in Spain, and hypertension research was practically nonexistent. Consequently, the League began with broad and extensive objectives: (1) education of physicians, health professionals, and the public about hypertension; (2) promotion and organization of scientific meetings and congresses; and (3) support of epidemiologic studies. In addition, the League promoted health education campaigns for the general population geared to counter the adverse health consequences of arterial hypertension and reinforce the need for periodic checkups. Moreover, the League stimulated the publication of journals or brochures with hypertension as their main theme. Support for the League in its early stages was difficult to obtain. Broader interest did not develop until Queen Sophia, the Count de Godo of Barcelona (owner of the La Vanguardia Newspaper), and the Marquis de Luca de Tena (owner of the ABC newspaper in Madrid) joined the League as honorary members. The Count and the Marquis disseminated articles about the purposes of the League and the problems of hypertension in their respective newspapers, both of which enjoy wide circulation. This collaboration with the press reached a pinnacle when the World Health Organization dedicated 1978 to educating the public on the ravages of arterial hypertension. That year, an intense campaign of newspaper articles and radio and television programs was combined with the creation of two committees, one in charge of hypertension prevention and the other dedicated to research in hypertension. The League’s new board of directors sought and elicited the collaboration of the pharmaceutical industry to embark on the first epidemiologic studies of hypertension in Spain. The first of the League’s scientific meetings was attended by very few participants; today, large meetings are the rule. The SHL has continued broad educational campaigns explaining hypertension through distribution of pamphlets and other reading material. In addition, it has established relationships with other international societies, such as the World Hypertension League (to which members of the Spanish League have been incorporated since 1983), the International Society of Hypertension, and the European Society of Hypertension. In 1987, the SSH was created to widen, intensify, and incorporate into a national event the ever-growing scientific approach to the study of hypertension. The SSH also provided a forum for presenting new information. During the years that the two organizations