A simple six-step guide to National-Scale Hypertension Control Program implementation

Abstract

Hypertension is the leading single preventable risk factor for death worldwide, and most of the disease burden attributed to hypertension weighs on low-and middle-income countries. Effective large-scale public health hypertension control programs are needed to control hypertension globally. National programs can follow six important steps to launch a successful national-scale hypertension control program: establish an administrative structure and survey current resources, select a standard hypertension treatment protocol, ensure supply of medication and blood pressure devices, train health care workers to measure blood pressure and control hypertension, implement an information system for monitoring patients and the program overall, and enroll and monitor patients with phased program expansion. Resolve to Save Lives, an initiative of global public health organization Vital Strategies, and its partners organized these six key steps and materials into a structured, stepwise guide to establish best practices in hypertension program design, launch, maintenance, and scale-up.