{"id":2000127930,"date":"2026-10-03T16:44:00","date_gmt":"2026-10-03T14:44:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/?p=2000127930"},"modified":"2026-10-03T15:46:48","modified_gmt":"2026-10-03T13:46:48","slug":"nearly-6-in-10-adults-with-high-blood-pressure-in-england-do-not-know-they-have-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/nearly-6-in-10-adults-with-high-blood-pressure-in-england-do-not-know-they-have-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Nearly 6 in 10 adults with high blood pressure in England do not know they have it"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The study, published in BMJ Public Health, analysed blood pressure measurements collected through Our Future Health, the UK’s largest health research programme.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Researchers examined data from adults who enrolled between 2022 and 2025 to assess how common hypertension was and how many people had been diagnosed, treated and successfully controlled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The researchers found that 37.2% of participants met the study’s definition of hypertension.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The condition was defined using World Health Organization criteria as a systolic blood pressure reading of at least 140 millimetres of mercury, a diastolic reading of at least 90 mmHg, or the use of blood pressure-lowering medication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among those with hypertension, 58.8% were considered to have undetected high blood pressure. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This meant they had not previously been diagnosed by a health professional and were not taking medication to lower their blood pressure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The prevalence of hypertension increased substantially with age. About 15% of adults aged 18 to 39 had high blood pressure, compared with about 71% among people aged 80 and older. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After adjusting for age, hypertension was also more common among men than women, at about 42% compared with 29%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The researchers also found that receiving treatment did not always mean that blood pressure was adequately controlled. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among participants taking one or more blood pressure-lowering medicines, 50.2% still had readings of at least 140\/90 mmHg.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wenyu Liu, a medical statistician at Oxford Population Health and the study’s lead author, said the findings show that high blood pressure is present across many demographic groups, including younger adults.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The researchers said the findings point to a need for more proactive detection of hypertension, alongside targeted treatment for people at higher risk of cardiovascular disease.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Iain Turnbull, a GP and clinical research fellow at Oxford Population Health, said many patients with high blood pressure remain undetected or are not adequately treated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The study’s authors noted that hypertension is an important contributor to cardiovascular disease, stroke and premature death.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They concluded that population-wide prevention strategies and improved identification and treatment could help address the high level of undetected and inadequately controlled hypertension in England.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
A blood pressure monitor is used to measure a patient\u2019s blood pressure, highlighting the importance of detecting and managing hypertension.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nearly six in 10 adults in England who have high blood pressure may not know they have the condition, according to a study of 1.4 million adults conducted by researchers at the University of Oxford.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":139,"featured_media":2000127931,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"byline":[201],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-2000127930","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","byline-rania-umutoni"],"bylines":[{"id":201,"name":"Rania Umutoni","slug":"rania-umutoni","description":"","image":{"id":2000122457,"url":"https:\/\/cdn.igihe.com\/en\/2026\/08\/WhatsApp-Image-2026-08-14-at-12.00.00-PM.jpeg","title":"WhatsApp Image 2026-08-14 at 12.00.00 PM","mime_type":"image\/jpeg"},"user_id":139}],"contributors":[{"id":201,"name":"Rania Umutoni","slug":"rania-umutoni","description":"","image":{"id":2000122457,"url":"https:\/\/cdn.igihe.com\/en\/2026\/08\/WhatsApp-Image-2026-08-14-at-12.00.00-PM.jpeg","title":"WhatsApp Image 2026-08-14 at 12.00.00 PM","mime_type":"image\/jpeg"},"user_id":139}],"featured_image":{"id":2000127931,"url":"https:\/\/cdn.igihe.com\/en\/2026\/10\/blood-pressure-gauge-heart.webp","alt":"","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/webp","width":1920,"height":1080,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/cdn.igihe.com\/en\/2026\/10\/blood-pressure-gauge-heart.webp","width":1920,"height":1080},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/cdn.igihe.com\/en\/2026\/10\/blood-pressure-gauge-heart.webp","width":1920,"height":1080},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/cdn.igihe.com\/en\/2026\/10\/blood-pressure-gauge-heart.webp","width":1920,"height":1080},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/cdn.igihe.com\/en\/2026\/10\/blood-pressure-gauge-heart.webp","width":1920,"height":1080},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/cdn.igihe.com\/en\/2026\/10\/blood-pressure-gauge-heart.webp","width":1920,"height":1080}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2000127930","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/139"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2000127930"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2000127930\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2000127933,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2000127930\/revisions\/2000127933"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000127931"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2000127930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2000127930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2000127930"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=2000127930"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=2000127930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}