New tool to tackle ‘silent killer’

The innovative approach to detecting hypertension (high blood pressure) from The George Institute for Global Health and UNSW Sydney in partnership with SiSU Health, will give residents a new way to get a free health check in about five minutes.
The check is free, and the self-operated machines are in discreet locations, so it’s only the individual who sees and hears their results in the store.
Customers are asked a series of questions about their age, lifestyle and family history, and given the opportunity to accurately weigh themselves, check their blood pressure and measure their heart rate. They can also sync up with the SiSU Health App to capture their results and track their progress.
It’s part of the ‘Shop2Stop Hypertension’ research study which aims to identify more people with high blood pressure – still the top risk factor for death in Australia – and raise community awareness.
The trial’s lead investigator Alta Schutte, Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine at The George Institute for Global Health and UNSW Sydney, said that efforts to reduce the rate of high blood pressure in the community have stopped being effective over the past 10 years.
“For example, raised blood pressure is increasingly linked to stroke deaths in men aged 25-49 years but they wouldn’t think of themselves as being at risk,” she said.
“We needed to think creatively about reaching this and other groups at high risk, in the places they already go, and Bunnings stores are a great way to do that.”
Unlike many other health issues, high blood pressure has no symptoms, and is sometimes called a ‘silent killer’ for this reason. One in three Australian adults (34 per cent) have raised blood pressure but only 32 per cent have it under control and within a healthy range. The only way to see if someone’s blood pressure is in the unhealthy range is for them to have it checked regularly.
Prof Schutte is Co-Chair of the National Hypertension Taskforce, which recently launched Australia’s first roadmap for increasing the nation’s rate of blood pressure control to 70 per cent by 2030, through increased awareness and detection among other measures.
“Shockingly, only 50 per cent of Australians with high blood pressure are aware they have it, which is why I and other experts recently published the first Hypertension Roadmap,” Prof Schutte said.
“We lag behind other similar countries, but we shouldn’t. We have the tools to identify and treat blood pressure and should be using them.”
High blood pressure contributes to numerous cardiovascular conditions including coronary heart disease and stroke, as well as dementia and kidney disease. It can be effectively treated with medication, as well as diet and lifestyle changes but Prof. Schutte says, “We can’t address high blood pressure to prevent many strokes, heart attacks and other life-threatening conditions if we don’t know who needs treatment”.