


Your doctor can also help with medicine to address the issue.īlood pressure tends to rise as we get older and can run in families. Obviously cutting out tobacco products will benefit you, as will keeping your alcohol intake low. Sometimes, lifestyle changes around a better diet or more exercise will help. High blood pressure is serious but can be treated. The Stroke Foundation provided 17,918 free blood pressure checks to New Zealanders across the country in the last 12 months.Ī blood pressure check is quick and painless. High blood pressure is when it is consistently around or over 140/90. Normal blood pressure is around 120/80 (said as "one-twenty over eighty") or lower. It often involves a cuff being placed around your arm and inflated - it feels tight but doesn't hurt. Your doctor will be able to carry one out for you, as well as some chemists. 1Ī blood pressure check is quick and painless.

Recent research estimates a third of these people don't know it as high blood pressure often has no symptoms. One in five New Zealanders experience high blood pressure. A person with high blood pressure is up to seven times more likely to have a stroke than someone with normal or low blood pressure. High blood pressure is the number one modifiable risk factor for stroke. It puts too much pressure and stress on the walls of blood vessels and increases the risk of both bleeds and blood clots. The proportion of people with measured high blood pressure increased with age from one in twenty (5.5%) aged 18-24 years, one in four (26.4%) aged 45-54 years and nearly one in two (45.2%) amongst those aged 75 years and over.Getting regular blood pressure checks can be your best defence against stroke. This was similar to rates observed in 2014-15 (24.4% and 21.7% respectively). Men continued to be more likely than women to have a high blood pressure reading (25.4% compared with 20.3%). This has remained unchanged since 2014-15 (23.0%). In 2017-18, just over one in five (22.8% or 4.3 million people) Australians aged 18 years and over had a measured high blood pressure reading. The numbers of people with high blood pressure presented in this section are based on these measurements, and do not include people who have high blood pressure but are managing their condition through the use of blood pressure medications. In addition to asking respondents whether they had ever been told by a doctor or nurse that they had hypertension or high blood pressure, respondents aged 18 years and over were also invited to have their blood pressure measured.
