High blood pressure

In 2015, 5.8% of the total burden in Australia was due to high blood pressure. High blood pressure was the 4th leading risk factor contributing to disease burden.

These estimates reflect the amount of burden that could have been avoided if all people in Australia did not have high blood pressure.

High blood pressure was causally linked to 12 diseases including 10 cardiovascular diseases, chronic kidney disease and dementia (see Supplementary tables).

How much burden was attributable to high blood pressure?

High blood pressure contributed 65% of hypertensive heart disease, 43% of coronary heart disease, 41% of stroke, 38% of chronic kidney disease, and 32% of atrial fibrillation & flutter burden.

Note that the following visualisation displays the top 10 linked diseases due to high blood pressure.

There was a 19% decrease (64,137 DALYs) in total burden attributable to high blood pressure between 2003 and 2015, which was driven by a 37% decrease due to changes in linked disease burden and 11% decrease due to changes in exposure to high blood pressure.

For the main disease groups linked to high blood pressure, there was an 80% and 54% overall increase in total burden attributable to high blood pressure among neurological conditions and kidney and urinary diseases, respectively. This was driven largely by increased linked disease burden, population growth and population ageing. Among cardiovascular diseases, total burden attributable to high blood pressure decreased by 23% overall which was driven by decreases due to changes in linked disease burden and changes to high blood pressure exposure.

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How did burden attributable to high blood pressure vary by age and sex?

The burden from high blood pressure was estimated in adults aged 25 and over. Burden due to high blood pressure increased with age, peaking at age 65–84 years.

Males experienced a greater amount of disease burden from high blood pressure than females in all ages up to age 84. Of the diseases linked to high blood pressure, coronary heart disease contributed the most burden from high blood pressure.

Did attributable burden vary by socioeconomic group?

Burden due to high blood pressure was 1.7 times greater in the lowest (most disadvantaged) socioeconomic group compared with the highest (least disadvantaged) group.

How has disease burden due to high blood pressure changed over time?

The rate of total burden due to high blood pressure (from all linked diseases) decreased by 41% (from 17 DALY to 10 DALY per 1,000 population) between 2003 and 2015.