People aren’t sufficiently aware that high blood pressure is very common from middle age onwards,” says Jonas Spaak, Docent in Cardiology at Karolinska Institutet’s Department of Clinical Sciences, Danderyd Hospital.

Most people know that high blood pressure is a bad thing, but many believe it will affect someone else, or that it’ll only affect them in their old age. “We have a large knowledge gap in our population. This is despite the fact that blood pressure medication is considered to be one of the most important life-saving medical treatments, along with antibiotics and vaccines. There are clear treatment goals – but only half of all patients achieve them. About one in four people over the age of 20 is affected, and from 60 years of age that number jumps to nearly one in two. Surprised? Not? How about these numbers, then: At least 1.8 million Swedes have high blood pressure. Other surveys have yielded higher figures. That number might even be misleadingly low. This figure is taken from the Public Health Report 2019, a recurring compilation of the public health situation in Region Stockholm. Yet one in four people aged 53 to 78 years have high blood pressure without even knowing it. High blood pressure, or hypertension, is the most common treatable risk factor for cardiovascular disease. The most common cause of death was cardiovascular disease, which was responsible for one in three deaths. Just check these out: In 2019, nearly 90,000 people died in Sweden. It's easy to find somewhat dizzying figures about high blood pressure. Text: Annika Lund, first published in Swedish in the magazine Medicinsk Vetenskap no 1/2021.

Blood pressure chart for seniors 2019