Meeting the 1990 hypertension objectives for the nation--a progress report.

The National High Blood Pressure Education Program (NHBPEP) effort got underway in 1972 following hypertension research findings and continues to be influenced and, when necessary, redirected, by further findings. Its coordinating committee is composed of representatives from 32 national organizations, and the program itself includes several Federal agencies, all State health departments, and more than 2,000 community-based programs. The goals of NHBPEP and the 1990 prevention objectives for the nation center around the same basic theme: high blood pressure is a serious condition leading to major diseases and premature death. It can be easily detected and effectively brought under control. In the summer of 1984, Admire and co-workers provided a general review and status report of the 1990 Hypertension Objectives and the progress made in meeting those objectives. In the remarkably short period of time since that review, there is even more progress to report. There is good evidence of progress in preventing disease and premature death from hypertension, in bringing hypertension under long term control, and in giving Americans a better understanding of the consequences of uncontrolled high blood pressure. There is also evidence in the fact that while visits to physicians generally have increased only slightly, hypertension visits have increased more markedly. And there is evidence that stroke mortality continues to decline in an almost linear fashion.