Almost 28% of Brazilians are diagnosed with hypertension, the worst result in the historical series

Systemic Arterial Hypertension (SAH) has advanced in Brazil in recent years and, in 2023, reached the worst result in the historical series of the Vigitel telephone survey, carried out by the Ministry of Health in the state capitals and in the Federal District. This April 26th, National Day to Prevent and Combat High Blood Pressure, the National Institute of Cardiology (INC) reinforces the alert for the need to diagnose and control the disease.

A study prepared by doctor Arn Migowski together with Gustavo Tavares Lameiro da Costa, both INC researchers, shows, based on data from Vigitel, that 27.9% of Brazilian men and women had a confirmed diagnosis of SAH in 2023. This is the highest number of the historical series of the survey, which began in 2006. According to Migowski, the results are worrying, as high blood pressure increases the risk of several diseases, such as heart attack (heart attack), cerebrovascular accident (CVA), chronic kidney disease, among others.

The survey showed that the disease is more common among women than men (29.3% versus 26.4%, respectively), although this difference has been falling since 2020. “In 2023, in the subgroup interviewed by cell phone, for the first Once in the history of Vigitel, the prevalence of hypertension was higher in men than in women, but only in the subgroup interviewed by cell phone”, says Migowski.

The lower the level of education, the more common the diagnosis is, reaching 45.3% of people with up to eight total years of formal schooling.

The Southeast, with 29.3% of the population diagnosed with high blood pressure, leads among the country’s regions. The capital with the highest rate is Rio de Janeiro: 34.4%, which was in first place in 70.6% of the years studied. At the other end, with fewer diagnoses, are the North region (21.4%) and the capital of Maranhão, São Luís (19.2%).

People aged 60 and over are more likely to have the disease, which was confirmed in all editions of the survey. However, 2023 was the year with the highest prevalence of hypertension in the entire historical series in the youngest age group in the study (18 to 24 years).

In 2023, in fact, Vigitel made calls to cell phone numbers (until the previous edition, interviews were only made to landlines). According to Migowski, if there had not been this change, the numbers would have been even worse, as most landlines are in older people’s homes.

A higher prevalence was also identified among self-declared black people (29.7%). Next came yellow (28.7%), brown (28.1%), white (26.4%) and indigenous (19.3%) in the year 2023.