Hypertension Care Cascades and Reducing Inequities in Cardiovascular Disease in LMIC
2024
This study investigates the distributional implications of enhancing hypertension control in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) across wealth quintiles. Using individual-level data from nationally representative surveys in 44 LMICs, the researchers simulated improvements in the hypertension care cascade and assessed the distributional benefits. They raised diagnosis and treatment levels for all wealth quintiles to match the best-performing country quintile and estimated the resulting change in 10-year cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk. Results indicate greater health benefits among bottom wealth quintiles, particularly in middle-income countries and those with larger initial disparities in hypertension management. Lower-middle-income countries would witness the most significant absolute benefits among the bottom quintiles under the treatment scenario, with a notable proportion of total CVD cases averted occurring in the lowest quintiles in upper-middle-income countries under both diagnosis and treatment scenarios. The findings suggest that targeted enhancements in hypertension diagnosis and treatment could substantially diminish socioeconomic-based inequalities in CVD burden across LMICs, thereby emphasizing the potential for improving healthcare equity through focused interventions.
Hypertension Care Cascades and Reducing Inequities in Cardiovascular Disease in LMIC
Source:
Stein DT, Reitsma MB, Geldsetzer P, Agoudavi K, Aryal KK, Bahendeka S, Brant LCC, Farzadfar F, Gurung MS, Guwatudde D, Houehanou YCN, Malta DC, Martins JS, Moghaddam SS, Mwangi KJ, Norov B, Sturua L, Zhumadilov Z, Bärnighausen T, Davies JI, Flood D, Marcus ME, Theilmann M, Vollmer S, Manne-Goehler J, Atun R, Sudharsanan N, Verguet S. Hypertension Care Cascades and Reducing Inequities in Cardiovascular Disease in Low- and Middle-Income Countries. Nature Medicine 2024; 30: 414-423. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-023-02769-8
Not open access.