Lowering Blood Pressure by Changing Lifestyle

High blood pressure is a fundamental cause of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and a major cause of disability and death. Raised blood pressure accounts for as many as 10.4 million deaths per year globally. The prevalence of high blood pressure has increased from 87.0 million in 1999-2000 to 108.2 million in 2015-2016. Of the 1.5 million worldwide annual deaths, 9.4% has been attributed to high blood pressure. Modifiable risk factors such as smoking, unhealthy diet and physical inactivity are shared and established risk factors for CVDs. Lifestyle changes such as smoking cessation, diet alteration including a reduction in dietary sodium intake and increased physical activity can improve health outcomes by decreasing or slowing complications associated with high blood pressure and other CVDs. Development and subsequent evaluation of effectiveness for any intervention targeting high blood pressure should include core components comprising baseline participant assessment, educational interventions for participants to acquire adequate knowledge about the etiology and risk factors of hypertension, and modification of lifestyle factors such as participating in regular physical activity, consuming a healthy diet and smoking cessation. Despite the high prevalence of high blood pressure in low-income and middle-income countries, there are relatively few data on intervention programs from low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs). Studies also report that a significant proportion of people with high blood pressure are undiagnosed or do not meet targets to control blood pressure both in developed and in LMICs. Among people with known high blood pressure, less than one-third of people are able to control their high blood pressure with appropriate treatment. Lifestyle modification programs have been shown to be effective in controlling blood pressure in LMICs. Bangladesh, a low-income country in South East Asia, is currently confronting an increasing burden of chronic diseases, including high blood pressure. Islam et al. conducted a cross-sectional study among adults age ≥30 years in a rural district in Bangladesh that reported the knowledge, attitudes and practice of diabetes and common eye diseases, and found overall knowledge was below average. The study also reported the prevalence and risk factors associated with known and undiagnosed diabetes, and self-reported known high blood pressure and newly diagnosed high blood pressure. The study identified that 40% of adults had high blood pressure, of which 82% were previously undiagnosed. Almost 60% of those with high blood pressure also had diabetes. Recently, a community-based cluster randomized controlled trial was conducted in rural communities in Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. This multicomponent intervention program was conducted for 24 months in 2645 adults with hypertension defined as blood pressure greater than or equal to 140/90 mm Hg. The study reported a statistically significant mean reduction of systolic blood pressure of 5.2 mm Hg from the baseline mean blood pressure 146.7 mm Hg compared to the usual care in which the reduction was 3.9 mm Hg. Relatively small reductions of 2 mm Hg in SBP and DBP have been reported to lower the risk of stroke by 14% and 17%, respectively, and the risk of coronary artery disease by 9% and 6%, respectively. The intervention program included home visits by government community health workers for blood-pressure monitoring and counselling and the training of physicians. A possible limitation of this intervention program maybe that home visits by trained community health workers for blood pressure monitoring and counselling may not be a sustainable and cost-saving approach due to the shortage of qualified workforce and the budget constraints in low- middle-income countries. Application of blended learning education programs to educate patients in managing blood pressure by changing lifestyle and participation in intervention programs as volunteers coordinated by volunteer leaders may be a sustainable approach for lowering blood pressure in the community setting. The goal of this pilot study is to compare a multicomponent intervention program to evaluate its effectiveness for lowering blood pressure among adults with high blood pressure in a rural district in Bangladesh. Health literacy is a complex and combined perception comprising a range of attributes including available resources of health-related information, and an individuals' intellectual, emotional, social and personal skills. Health literacy empowers people with skills to improve their health and well-being. Evidence indicates that deficits in health literacy are associated with poorer health outcomes and higher health-related costs at both individual and system levels. Improved health literacy had been reported to be associated with reductions in risk behaviours for chronic disease. However, an extended and often asymptomatic onset and a need for ongoing management, these conditions present people with a sharp and upward learning curve about risks, treatments and self-care. Self-care, especially in resource-limited settings, an essential dimension of treatment, depends on the ability of systems and providers to teach and patients to learn effective self-management skills. At the individual level, good health literacy is the foundation of successful management and prevention of chronic disease. Health literacy assessment can be used to improve community participation in health, health service planning, public health education, and policy development. In the past decade, much research on the impact of health literacy on health outcomes has been conducted across the globe; however, health literacy tools in rural areas of Bangladesh have not been developed or tested. The European Health Literacy Survey (HLS- Q12) questionnaire has been used to assess health literacy; however, its usefulness to measure health literacy in rural Bangladesh has not been investigated.