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2012 HYPERTENSION FACT SHEET
The World Health Organization identifies increased blood
pressure (hypertension) as
the leading risk for death in the world.
Increased blood pressure is the cause of:
50% of cardiovascular disease, including more than 6 in 10
strokes
50% heart failure and 25% of kidney failure
13% of premature deaths overall; and over 40% of deaths in
people with diabetes.
Close to one in four adult Canadians have been diagnosed with
hypertension and many are
not aware their blood pressure is high.
19 in 20 Canadians are estimated to develop hypertension if they
live an average life span.
Hypertension is the leading diagnosis for Canadian adults
visiting a physician, accounting for
21 million physician visits in 2009. In 2007/08, over 6 million
Canadians had been diagnosed with hypertension and 1,100 were
being diagnosed every day.
An estimated 7.5 million Canadian adults currently have
diagnosed hypertension.
The proportion of adults diagnosed with hypertension doubled
between 1998 and 2007.
Cardiovascular diseases and hypertension are draining the
Canadian health care system.
Heart disease, stroke, and hypertension cost the Canadian health
care system an estimated
$7.4 billion each year in hospital, physician, and drug costs
and account for an addition $12.8
billion a year in productivity losses due to premature death and
disability.
Antihypertensive drugs are the most costly therapeutic
category.
In 2010, there were over 80,000,000 antihypertensive drug
prescriptions at a cost of over 3
billion dollars, accounting for 13% of total drug costs.
In 2007, almost 50% of Canadian women over the age of 60 were
taking antihypertensive
medication.
Direct health costs of hypertension are similar to the combined
costs of heart attack, stroke
and heart failure.
The causes of hypertension are largely known and are
preventable.
Hypertension is caused by obesity, unhealthy eating including
high salt (sodium), physicalinactivity and alcohol intake.
Healthy lifestyle is at the heart of healthy blood pressure. In
particular, interventions to
reduce population-wide salt intake have been shown repeatedly to
be cost saving, effective
and efficient.
