One in four adults in the United Kingdom has high blood pressure, a condition frequently caused or made worse by smoking, obesity, high salt intake, heavy consumption of alcohol, and lack of exercise. There is the potential that information campaigns and well-designed advice on behavioral changes can save numerous lives by reducing the incidence and severity of high blood pressure. The strokes, heart problems, and related ailments resulting from high blood pressure, or hypertension, make it the United Kingdom’s second greatest risk factor for premature death and disability. Information is additionally important because the condition is symptomless. Not all adults have their blood pressure tested -- but should be persuaded to do so, whether the cause is behavioral or innate, so that the problem can be detected and treated.
Public Health England, an agency of the UK Department of Health, is working with Be He@lthy Be Mobile to develop a mobile- based system that will serve as part of a broad campaign to raise national awareness about blood pressure and about changes in behavior that can reduce it or prevent the onset of health risks and conditions associated with hypertension. Health officials will use the Be He@lthy Be Mobile “toolkit” on mHypertension as a starting point to create a campaign that applies the technology in a way that best supports the country’s larger strategy on reducing risk factors for other chronic diseases, such as diabetes and cancers. The resulting system will then be made available to the global toolkit in case other countries, including low- and middle-income nations, want to adapt and apply it.
