Management of hypertension and changes in blood pressure level in patients included in the hypertension register of the North Karelia Project.

A major subprogramme of the North Karelia Project has been the hypertension programme which aimed at lowering the high blood pressure levels prevalent among the whole population of the province of North Karelia, and especially among middle-aged men. A community-based hypertension register, which served as the major tool of the programme, was established to keep patients under treatment and to gather information about the progress of the programme. The registration of the hypertension subjects was continued from 1972 to 1977; the registered patients had annual follow-up examinations. After 5 years of the programme, there were approximately 17 000 registered patients, which was 9.7% of the total population. The proportion of drop-outs at the annual follow-up examinations was 10-20%. 83% of the registered hypertensive subjects were undergoing drug treatment after 3 years' intervention. The percentage of normotensive subjects increased significantly year by year.