Effectiveness of the National Blood Pressure Measurement Campaign in the East and Southeast of Iran

Background: Hypertension (HTN), a major public health concern, poses a significant burden on healthcare systems worldwide. One of the objectives of the Iranian national blood pressure (BP) measurement campaign (INBPMC) executed in 2019-2020, was the detection of hypertensive patients who were unaware of their disease. This study investigated the effectiveness of the program in the Southeast and East of Iran.  Methods: In a cross-sectional analytical study, we collected the required data from 936 individuals participating in the INBPMC, using the cluster sampling method. People over 30 years old, without neuropsychiatric or sensorimotor disorder, with at least four years of education were included. The required data were collected through a checklist.  Results: The Mean±SD age of the participants was 45.5±12.77 years, with 62.1% of the participants being male. The prevalence of HTN in this study was 36.2%, of which 16.2% were newly diagnosed. Among those previously diagnosed, 59 individuals (31.5%) had uncontrolled HTN. The Mean±SD age of the total hypertensive cases was 50.59±13.480 years, while the mean age of newly diagnosed cases was 43.39(11.246) years. There were significant associations between HTN and age (P 0.001) and between the mean age of newly diagnosed hypertensive cases and the city of the participants (P=0.040). No statistically significant difference was found in the sex distribution of newly diagnosed hypertensive cases across different cities (P=0.509).  Conclusion: The identification of a significant number of new hypertensive cases indicates the importance of programs for the early detection and management of this condition. Furthermore, early diagnosis of HTN could help prevent its complications.