A man in HCM City has hypertension screening at a blood pressure check point established by Communities for Healthy Hearts project. — VNS Photo Thu Hằng

HCM CITY — Screening in the community is an effective way to raise people’s awareness of the dangers of high blood pressure and help people detect it early, health experts have said.

Community awareness was limited, hindering early detection of the condition, Phan Thanh Tâm, deputy director of the HCM City Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, said.

Hypertension causes an estimated 91,000 deaths per year, or 21 per cent of overall mortality, he said.

One in four Vietnamese adults have high blood pressure, but less than half of them are aware of their condition, he told a recent conference in HCM City.

HCM City has a population of 9 million with large number of low- and medium- income people and migrants.

In 2016 the rate of hypertension in the city was 23.8 per cent of all adults aged 40 and above, Tâm said.

Around 53 per cent of people living with hypertension do not know their status, he said.

Nguyễn Hữu Hưng, deputy director of the city Department of Health, said the department is seeking suitable models and solutions for prevention, early detection and management of non-communicable diseases and hypertension.

A programme it launched in 2016, Communities for Healthy Hearts, engages partners across multiple sectors including the Government, social enterprises, the public and private health sectors, the community, and academia, and seeks to provide new options for screening, diagnosis, treatment, and follow-up of hypertension.

The project aims to improve blood pressure control among adults by increasing access to high-quality hypertension services.

The management and support of patients with hypertension is enhanced with the use of database management software.

The programme has established 558 blood pressure check points and a network connecting 79 public and private health facilities such as commune health stations, private clinics and district hospitals.

The community-based hypertension management model and treatment guidelines developed by the project should be scaled up to other districts in the city, Tâm added. — VNS