Nearly 4.6M Canadians have hypertension: Statistics Canada

"Nearly one-fifth of Canadians, or roughly 4.6 million adults, have hypertension, with hundreds of thousands of people unaware of their condition, a new survey shows. Hypertension, or high blood pressure, is a leading risk factor for mortality, cardiovascular disease and kidney disease, said the study released by Statistics Canada. About 80 per cent of the 4.6 million Canadians with hypertension are being treated with medication, said the study. In two-thirds of those treated, the anti-hyperintensive drugs were found to be effectively controlling blood pressure. However, among one-third of adults with hypertension, the condition remained "uncontrolled," meaning blood pressure is still high. About half of those with "uncontrolled" blood pressure, or 762,000 people, were unaware of their condition, according to the findings. The study used analysis from the Canadian Health Measures Survey between March 2007 and February 2009, which is based on direct, automated measures of blood pressure and self-reported use of blood pressure medication in respondents aged 6 to 79 years" - Canwest