Hypertension in Mexican adults: prevalence, diagnosis and type of treatment. Ensanut MC 2016

Objective. To describe the prevalence, awareness and proportion of adults with an adequate control of hypertension. Materials and methods. Blood pressure was measured at 8 352 adults who participated in the Ensanut MC 2016. The adults who reported having diagnosis of hypertension or had systolic blood pressure values (TAS) >= 140mmHg or diastolic blood pressure (TAD) >= 90mmHg were classified as hypertensive. Hypertension was considered controlled when blood pressure was TAS < 140mmHg and TAD < 90mmHg. Results. The prevalence of hypertension was 25.5%. Of these, 40.0% were unaware of having high blood pressure. Of the hypertensive adults who had previous diagnosis of hypertension and receiving drug treatment (79.3%), 45.6% had blood pressure under control. Conclusions. A high percentage of adults are unaware of having hypertension and nearly half have inadequate control. The relevance of current programmes for diagnosing hypertension should be assessed, as well as the effectiveness of their control strategies.