Media Release

Date: 18 May 2012

Blood Pressure Checks Reveal Mixed Results

Waikato District Health Board’s Older Persons and Rehabilitation staff today took 114 peoples blood pressure in two hours at Waikato Hospital.

Thirty of those – a mixture of staff and patients – were referred to their GPs with high blood pressure for follow-up.

The blood pressure checks were done as part of a national Blood Pressure Awareness campaign run by the Stroke Foundation.

The campaign aims to raise awareness that high blood pressure is strongly related to stroke and is often referred to as the silent killer because people can have high blood pressure without having any symptoms.

High blood pressure puts pressure on the walls of blood vessels and can cause them to break down, which can lead to stroke.

Of the 30 people referred for follow-up care from today’s blood pressure checks, 12 had pre-hypertension, 14 had stage one hypertension and four people had stage two hypertension – a very real risk factor for stroke.

Older Persons and Rehabilitation nurse educator Christine Marra said it was great to see so many people who wanted to have their blood pressure taken opportunistically.

“It’s fantastic that so many people were willing to spare five minutes to have this health check and if all of those 30 people with elevated blood pressure do go to their GPs and get their blood pressures managed, then we will have undoubtedly saved some from suffering some very poor health – if not their lives.”

Blood pressure can largely be managed by a combination of diet, exercise and medication.

You can help to lower your blood pressure by:

• eating less salt
• eating food low in saturated fat and including lots of fruit, vegetables, cereals and wholemeal bread
• if you drink alcohol, doing so only in moderation: one glass for women and two glasses for men
• not smoking; and
• exercising moderately for 30 minutes most days of the week.

For more information on stroke and managing stroke visit www.stroke.org.nz

Photo: Christine Marra checks Supported Transfer and Accelerated Rehabilitation Team charge nurse manager Raewyn Dean's blood pressure.

ENDS

Check out our media releases on www.waikatodhb.health.nz/news or

Contact:

Amy Thomsen
Communications Consultant
Waikato District Health Board
Fax: 07 858 0922
Mobile: 021 712 663
www.waikatodhb.health.nz

About Waikato District Health Board and Health Waikato:

Waikato DHB is responsible for planning, funding and providing quality health and disability support services for the 365,730 people living in the Waikato DHB region. It has an annual turnover of $1.2 billion and employs more than 6000 people.

Health Waikato is the DHB’s main provider of hospital and health services with an annual budget of more than $701 million and 5238 staff. It has six groups across five hospital sites, three primary birthing units, two continuing care facilities and 20 community bases offering a comprehensive range of primary, secondary and tertiary health services.

A wide range of independent providers deliver other Waikato DHB-funded health services - including primary health, pharmacies and community laboratories.

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