Hypertension on the increase among the youth in Eastern Region

Dr. John E. Otoo, the Deputy Director of Public Health of the Eastern Regional Ghana Health Service has said hypertension was on the increase among the youth in the region.

“What is interesting is that we are having young people who are in their productive years recording this condition. People in their late 30s and 40s, which is unacceptable”, he noted.

Dr. Otoo told the Ghana News Agency in an interview that hypertension in the youth meant, the heart was going to work against a raised blood pressure for a very long time which was dangerous.

“The probability of your heart failing is very high, the probability of having a stroke is very high, probability of having kidney disease and blindness is very high because of the raised blood pressure”, he said.

Hypertension, Dr. Otoo, noted resulted from multiple factors such as hereditary, unhealthy lifestyles such as drunkenness, a sedentary lifestyle, and eating foods containing high calories.

He, however, observed that formally, hypertension, diabetes and other Non-Communicable Diseases (CDs) were only recorded in persons who were older and had grown passed their productive lives.

As a result, he indicated that the health directorate was putting in place strategies to increase NCD awareness in the region as well as increase the number of wellness clinics in all districts in the region.

The wellness clinics, Dr Otoo, said were to help detect any abnormalities in the general health condition of citizens so that they would be linked to care for management.

Again, he indicated that the public would be educated on the need to access wellness clinics since the few available in the districts were not being patronized as expected.

“The unfortunate thing is that hypertension, for example, is among most of the chronic diseases that when they start you will not know until you start experiencing the complications”, he noted.

Dr. Otoo, therefore, advised citizens to at least visit the wellness clinics every six months to check their blood pressure, sugar level, Body Mass Index (BMI) and others for their health sake.

Again, he advised citizens to be conscious of their lifestyles because of the changing way of living, “Now everything is at hands reach easy to access. We need to exercise more and eat healthily”.

Non-Communicable Diseases refer to a group of health conditions not mainly caused by acute infections, however, result in long-term health consequences and often create a need for long-term treatment and care.

GNA