Improving the control of Hypertension in rural India: overcoming the barriers to diagnosis and effective treatment

Background

Hypertension is increasing in prevalence in urban regions of India, but little is known about its emergence in more rural regions, where 70% of the population still resides. There are significant barriers to the diagnosis and treatment of hypertension in both urban and rural regions of India, and there is some evidence that system barriers differ according to the stage of transition of the population.

Aims

Our research was undertaken in three diverse rural regions in India, each of which is at a different stage of economic and epidemiological transition (early, middle, late) to identify and explore these potentially different barriers and knowledge gaps in the diagnosis treatment and management of hypertension.

Project plan

We employed common recruitment and study methods across these settings in order to address the following aims:

To quantify and identify the determinants of the prevalence, awareness, treatment, and control of hypertension in three different rural populations in India.
Identify barriers to hypertension control.
Develop an intervention strategy to improve the control of hypertension. The design was based on addressing those factors identified as contributing to control of hypertension control in these settings.
Test the intervention at all of the three sites.

Impact

Evidence from the project was used to develop guidelines about hypertension for use in Primary Health Centres in India. In addition, materials developed by the project team have been used to train health workers about hypertension.

Publications and output

GACD have also published an end-of-programme report, providing a comprehensive summary of the programme and outcomes.

The team have developed the following training materials: