Efforts to lower hypertension

Members of the newly formed American Heart Association Upstate board of directors are working to shape the board’s strategy to lower rates of hypertension in Upstate South Carolina. The board will seek to raise the percent of patients with controlled hypertension from around 55 to 70 percent, a goal the board sees as achievable over the course of two years. The board formed in October 2016 and is comprised of health care professionals, top executives and influential higher education and community leaders. Ronald Gimbel, associate professor and chair of Clemson’s public health sciences department, is president of the board and has been tasked with leading the change effort. Some of those strategies include reaching out to elected officials, employee health providers, recreational organizations, community centers and medical outreach programs to help spread information and tools to combat hypertension. These include American Heart Association initiatives like “Check. Change. Control.” and “Target: BP.” The need for people to control hypertension is great across the nation. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, approximately 75 million people have high blood pressure and only 54 percent of them have it under control. South Carolina has the eighth highest rate of hypertension in the country, and the other three American Heart Association boards in the state all chose independently to concentrate their efforts on hypertension. Shannon Emmanuel, senior director of community health at the American Heart Association and American Stroke Association, said South Carolina is the only state in the nation in which all boards chose to focus on hypertension.