High Blood Pressure affects more males

As the country marks Non-Communicable Disease Week, more males have been found to be suffering from High Blood Pressure.

The Health Ministry's survey result shows that more Fijians have high blood pressure compared to Indo-Fijians with more men falling in this category.

More than 6700 people were surveyed and out of this number, the proportion of newly diagnosed cases is higher among Fijians which is 71% compared to 51% in Indo-Fijians.

The survey also reveals that high blood pressure is not well recognised among Fijians and when it is recognised it is not controlled well.

The Ministry recommends in its report that there is a need to increase the capacity of the healthcare system to identify, monitor and treat people with high blood pressure, mainly targeting Fijians. People have been advised to decrease their intake of alcohol, kava, smoking and change eating habits which leads to Hyper-Tension and stroke later.

Non-Communicable diseases include High Blood Pressure, Diabetes, Cancer, Stroke, heart disease and many other life style diseases.