The national high blood pressure education program: thirty years and counting.

Abstract

May is High Blood Pressure Month. This year’s commemoration is special because we note the 30th anniversary of the National High Blood Pressure Education Program (NHBPEP). This National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) initiative is one of the most successful public health education programs in the world. During the 30 years of its existence, awareness of hypertension has dramatically increased to 73% in the latest national survey. Nearly all American adults have had their blood pressure measured, and most do so on a regular basis. When the Program began in 1972, only 16% of hypertensive patients were controlled to the blood pressure goal at that time of <160/95 mm Hg. In the most recent survey, control rates for that old goal had risen to 64% and to 29% for the current goal of <140/90 mm Hg.1 Within the first 2 decades of the NHBPEP, visits to physicians for high blood pressure have increased nearly 60%, whereas visits for all medical causes increased approximately 7%.2 Today, hypertension is a primary reason for adults to visit their doctor.3 During the same 30-year period, mean systolic blood pressure has fallen more than 10 mm Hg. Hypertension prevalence has fallen as well.1 Importantly, age-adjusted mortality rates for stroke and coronary heart disease have fallen dramatically over the last 30 years.4 These declines are real are seen in both genders and in black, as well as white, Americans. Many Americans have lived longer as a result of this program. This causes one to pause and ask, “How did they do it?” Through partnerships that developed national programs of patient and professional education that were supported by extensive mass media campaigns, the public, patients, and physicians were stimulated to act.5 High blood pressure, or “high bloods,” became a household …