Beyond Measurement: Insights from May Measurement Month 2023 in Bahrain

Abstract

The May Measurement Month (MMM) campaign operated in Bahrain during 2023 to increase public awareness about elevated blood pressure (BP). The study enrolled participants aged 18 and above through opportunistic sampling at healthcare facilities and shopping malls and workplace locations. Three seated BP readings were obtained from each participant while a questionnaire gathered data about their demographic characteristics and their lifestyle habits and medical conditions. The study defined hypertension as systolic BP ≥140mmHg or diastolic BP ≥90mmHg (based on the mean of the second and third readings), or current use of BP-lowering medication. The study defined controlled BP as <140/90mmHg in patients who received BP-lowering medication. The study included 2,829 participants with an average age of 46.9 years and consisted of 41.9% female participants. The study revealed that 1,145 participants (40.5%) had hypertension, of whom 730 (63.8%) participants were aware of their condition and 710 (62.0%) participants received BP-lowering treatment. The study showed that 57.7% of participants taking BP-lowering medication achieved controlled BP levels, representing 35.8% of all hypertensive participants. Participants with hypertension had higher body mass index values than participants without hypertension (30.4 vs 27.5 kg/m2, p<0.001). The MMM23 programme proved that opportunistic BP screening can be successfully conducted in Bahrain. The ongoing participation in MMM will enable continuous disease monitoring, which will help develop national plans to decrease cardiovascular disease rates.