High systolic blood pressure as a cause of mortality from cerebrovascular diseases in Cuba

Abstract

Introduction: High blood pressure is the metabolic risk factor to which more cardiovascular deaths are attributed; suffering from it doubles the risk of cerebrovascular disease, understood as the sudden onset of a neurological deficit attributable to a focal vascular cause.

Objective: Describe the incidence of high systolic blood pressure in mortality from cerebrovascular diseases in Cuba in the decade 2010 to 2019.

Methods: A descriptive ecological study was carried out, with the purpose of considering the burden of elevated systolic blood pressure in mortality from cerebrovascular diseases in Cuba, in the decade 2010- 2019. The main source of information was the statistical yearbooks of the Ministry of Public Health of Cuba, corresponding to the years under study.

Results: Elevated systolic blood pressure was present in 42 % of deaths and 46 % of disability-adjusted life years due to cerebrovascular diseases in Cuba; noting an increase in the crude mortality rates for these conditions from 87,1 in 2010 to 89,1 deaths per 100 000 inhabitants in 2019, while the age-adjusted rates decreased from 45,8 to 39,2, in that period.

Conclusions: Elevated systolic blood pressure caused approximately half of the deaths from cerebrovascular diseases and disability-adjusted life years in Cuba. It is likely that with adequate control, cerebrovascular mortality in the country will be reduced to that exact extent.