Nearly half of U.S. adults have hypertension, or high blood pressure, and only about 1 in 4 of those individuals has their hypertension under control.
Hypertension is a major preventable risk factor for heart disease and stroke, which are the first and fifth leading causes of death in the United States, respectively.
The Surgeon General’s Call to Action to Control Hypertension (Call to Action) seeks to avert the negative health effects of hypertension by identifying evidence-based interventions that can be implemented, adapted, and expanded in diverse settings across the United States.
The Call to Action outlines three goals to improve hypertension control across the United States, and each goal is supported by strategies to achieve success:
- Goal 1. Make hypertension control a national priority.
- Goal 2. Ensure that the places where people live, learn, work, and play support hypertension control.
- Goal 3. Optimize patient care for hypertension.
The Call to Action also:
- Recognizes the conditions in which people are born, live, learn, work, play, worship, and age directly impact opportunities for success and drive health equality.
- Focuses on specific and tangible interventions that can be tailored, replicated, and scaled to impact one of the highest burden health conditions in the United States.
- Provides targeted strategies that different sectors can take to collectively improve hypertension control across the United States.
To learn more about the Call to Action and read other reports, visit the Office of the Surgeon General. We must act to preserve the nation’s cardiovascular health now and into the future. Together, we’ve got this!
