May Measurement Month 2018: an analysis of blood pressure screening results from Taiwan

To raise awareness of hypertension in the general population, we have held an annual community-based nationwide campaign for blood pressure (BP) screening. The 2018 May Measurement Month (MMM) campaign in Taiwan followed a similar protocol as the 2017 MMM campaign. We recruited adults aged 20 years and older at about 800 community pharmacies across Taiwan. After a 10-min seated rest, volunteers—consisting of community pharmacists—took three BP readings using automated BP devices. The means of the 2nd and 3rd BP readings were used as the screening BP estimates. Hypertension was defined as current use of antihypertensive medications, or the screening BP of ≥140/90 mmHg. Of the 15 365 enrolled participants with a mean age of 56.8 ± 16.4 years, 53.3% were women. After imputation, we found 48.1% of the individuals had hypertension. Among participants with hypertension, 83.7% were aware, 55.0% had controlled BP, and 81.3% were medically treated, of whom 67.7% had controlled BP (<140/90 mmHg). In contrast to the global results, our results showed that the participants with diabetes mellitus, prior myocardial infarction, or stroke had higher BP than those without these comorbidities. The annual campaign experience enables us to establish a feasible approach to raising awareness and to assessing the management of hypertension in the general population. Whether the regular annual BP screening campaign makes a lasting effect on hypertension-related disease burden awaits verification.