Archana Ramalingam, Joshua Chadwick, Mosoniro Kriina, Manjula Neelavanan, Anusuya Govindan, R. Devendhiran, Vettrichelvan Venkatasamy, Emily Devasagayam, Surya Joseph, L. Swathy Madhusoodanan, Bhoopathi Kangusamy, S. Ramaswamy, G. Elavarasu, I. Kalaimani, Ashok Kumar Paparaju, D. Chokkalingam, Dinesh Kumar, T. Daniel Rajasekar, D. Augustine, Divya Jilumudi, Harshavardhini Vasu, Sudharshini Subramaniam, Vidhya Viswanathan, K. Krishnaraj, Jerard Maria Selvam, TS Selvavinayagam, S. Vineeth, A. Arun Thamburaj, Senthilkumar Palaniandi, Prabhdeep Kaur
Undiagnosed and uncontrolled hypertension remains a critical public health challenge in India. We estimated changes in the hypertension care cascade in Tamil Nadu between 2019-20 and 2023-24. We also explored changes in treatment-seeking behaviour among persons treated for hypertension. Two representative cross-sectional surveys were conducted among adults aged 18–69, with sample sizes of 5780 and 8880, using multi-stage sampling and WHO STEPS methodology. Blood pressure data were available for 3800 adults in 2019–20 and 8114 in 2023–24. Among individuals with hypertension, the age- and gender-standardised estimates for awareness, treatment, and control improved from 30.1%, 21.7%, and 7.0% in 2019–20 to 36.8%, 32.2%, and 14.4% in 2023–24. Multivariate adjusted analysis showed higher prevalence in 2023–24 for awareness (1.3 times), treatment (1.5 times), and control (2.1 times) compared to 2019–20. Individuals with hypertension seeking treatment through government health facilities increased from 47.5% to 62.4%. Blood pressure (BP) control among those treated in the government facilities improved from 31% to 44.5%. Overall, hypertension care in Tamil Nadu improved, with increased use of public health facilities for treatment.