Mid-year Membership Meeting
In Celebration of World Hypertension Day (WHD)
The National Forum held its Mid-year Member Meeting on World Hypertension Day (WHD) May 17th.
The theme for WHD is Know Your Numbers, with a goal of increasing high blood pressure awareness in all populations around the world.
Presentations Topics:
• Gaps in Heart Disease Mortality,
• A mayor’s work in Creating a Culture of Health,
• Actions to improve blood pressure control, and
• National Forum member updates.
Presentation Resources:
May Measurement Month
Even if you know these facts, a reminder is useful:
- About 1 in 3 American adults have high blood pressure
- High blood pressure contributes to about 1,000 deaths per day
- Having high blood pressure makes a person 4x more likely to die from stroke, and 3x more likely to die from heart disease
- Reducing average population systolic blood pressure by just 12-13 points could reduce strokes by over one-third (37%)
- High blood pressure costs $51 billion a year
- Despite these compelling reasons for people to know their blood pressure numbers, and for health care providers to ensure their patients with high BP get it under control, 1 in 5 people with high blood pressure do not know it
- And only about half (53%) of people with high blood pressure have it under control