The Nigerian Hypertension Society on Monday said the South-East geopolitical zone bears the highest burden of hypertension in the country.

The President of the NHS, Prof Ayodele Omotoso, made this known in Abuja at the 23rd Annual General Meeting and scientific conference of the association, with the theme: “Tackling the burden of hypertension in Nigeria from primary to tertiary care.”

Omotoso, who is also a professor of Medicine at the University of Ilorin, Kwara State, and Consultant Cardiologist at the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital, said the burden of hypertension in Nigeria was enormous and needed urgent attention.

“Nationally, the prevalence is around 30-40 per cent across the board. But when you look at the distribution in the geopolitical zones in the country, we do know that in the South-East, we have about 44 per cent; in North-East, it is about 42 per cent, and in other areas, it is about 25-30 per cent across the various geopolitical zones.

“When you translate that to actual figures using the current population, you will know that the burden runs into millions. Let’s say we have 120 million in the adult range in the 200 million estimated Nigerian population, just look at 30 per cent of that, that is like saying we have about 40 million Nigerians have hypertension.

“If you look at the cost of this disease, not only the cost of treatment, but the cost in terms of days lost to ill health, and complications due to kidney failure, stroke, heart failure, and others, they have economic implications on the country,” Omotoso stated.

Also, a member of the Africa Regional Advisory Group of the International Society of Hypertension, Prof. Solomon Kadiri, said hypertension had become a burden in the past few decades.

Kadiri, who is a nephrologist and the keynote speaker at the conference, said, “The prevalence rate from many studies will be about 35-40 per cent in adults, meaning that one in three adults that you meet will be hypertensive. In 90 per cent of hypertension cases, there is no disease cause as such that could be identified.But there are risk factors like excessive intake of salt, obesity, physical inactivity, and excessive alcohol consumption.

“When a patient is diagnosed with hypertension, he should be told what the likely reasons are, even if the patient is taking medications for hypertension, he should be told to cut down on salt intake, lose weight, and become physically active.

“Nigerians need to be aware that hypertension is a problem, and they need to have their high pressure checked. Adults should have their blood pressure checked twice a year, if they have shown to be hypertensive, they should have their blood pressure checked more frequently.”

Source: https://punchng.com/SEast-has-highest-hypertension-patients-says-society

Fake doctor you wake up this morning the first you remember is SE

You need a genuine doctor

Racoon, Bobloco and those obi-dients...

Please don't argue with them o!

No wonder this people are always wailing and crying. No wonder they are always triggered at any news about President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
Wao!!! PBAT have successfully given this people high BP
If you hate and wish people evil, why wouldn't you have hypertension

Time to research the cause.

Are the foods too salty ? Etc

Do they take too much alcohol ?

Are there lifestyle things ?

This is what a proper society with youths that have heads will do and not just attack the people who gave the data.

Everything is not “We against the world”

Rather than expressing gratitude to The Nigerian Hypertension Society for bringing to light the truth about the South-Eastern people bearing the highest burden of hypertension in the country, and thereby allowing for swift action to address this issue, most of you are choosing to play the hate card. SMH

bia nwokem try reduce your intake of akpu and oha soup

Na lie o! When you're over thinking about your containers at high sea why won't you be hypertensive

If it's not cause of too much alcohol or as a result of too much salt...then I don't believe the report.

Na high blood pressure go kill Dem. You can't be so intense with hatred for other tribes and not have hypertension.

Only you out of 250 ethnic tribe wan live alone on a land locked space slightly the size of Oyo state. People wey no get Sense

K

Loan apps is enough reason to be hypertensive in Nigeria

To be honest, people here are very emotional.

Basically the people with the most access to healthcare facilities.

Many don’t even have primary care centers in their vicinity to do health screenings

What can be the cause

It's eating us up

This will cause another round of ethnic clashes

They stress themselves too much in pursuit of money

Not everything is about tribe.

This should serve as a wake up call to monitor ones health.

Problem for this country plenty pass make person dey ascribe tribe to everything

Ain’t no peace for the wicked..

DankemzI:
Na lie o! When you're over thinking about your containers at high sea why won't you be hypertensive

LMAO

AntiWailer:
Time to research the cause.

Are the foods too salty ? Etc

salt is innocent perhaps too sugary or alcoholic intake since it's almost a norm over there compared to other region

Pikin wey say him mama no go rest himslef no go rest.

The kind of work we do in Nigeria is horrible, when you go for interview they would ask you if you can work under pressure, Nigerians don't have rest from Monday to Monday, Government is doing nothing, graduated no Job, hopelessness to stretch to HBP, the country is no safe , people are justing thinking up and down .. The high population in this country are not healthy.

This is expected and it's largely due to the sedentary lifestyle of most people in the south east.

An igbo man above 35 will have boys to do everything for him....He's a king with male and female servants.
He goes to the shop whenever he likes, seats in his office, look at sales books and make business calls till evening when he meets with friends/associates for nkwobi and many bottles of buzz then goes home to download a big bowl of food prepared by madam.
He doesn't do much physical activity and doesn't exercise......

Billionaires having hbp over nothing!

That 30% of the population is hypertensive doesn't translate to 40 million Nigerians having hypertension using standard scientific calculations when the majority of the population is below 25 years old.

What nonsense calculation is he making? This is why the world questions our statistics.

Post election trauma is the cause

Time to compare different Health Promotion initiatives that have been used around the world and bring introduce them to us. The modifiable risk factors should be targeted.
Since Alcohol is an important risk factor, an increase in alcohol taxes will not be bad.
Then, Government should create recreational days, maybe once a month when businesses will not open until a particular time of the day to help people pay attention to exercises, with the aim of weight.
Government must also include sidewalks in all the roads to encourage people to walk.
Other Programs targeted at weight reduction should be reinvigorated.
A campaign against salt intake must also be emphasised.
I believe these can go a long way in reducing the incidence of High BP amongst our Adult populations.