Abstract
The objective of this study was to clarify the awareness and treatment status of hypertension in Japanese workers, comparing with those of hypercholesterolemia. The subjects were 6,186 workers (age 19 to 69 years), who worked at 12 workplaces in Japan and who continuously participated in the High-risk and Population Strategy for Occupational Health Promotion (HIPOP-OHP) study at the baseline (1999 or 2000) and the subsequent year (2000 or 2001). No intervention was performed during the study period. Blood pressure and total cholesterol level were measured at baseline. Awareness and treatment status were examined by a self-administered questionnaire in the following year. Untreated subjects were defined as those were not aware of hypertension (or hypercholesterolemia) or those not taking medication and not undergoing lifestyle modification. The percentages of subjects with hypertension defined as aware were 65.7% in men and 72.7% in women, respectively. The percentages of subjects with hypercholesterolemia defined as aware were 55.7% in men and 58.6% in women, respectively. In subjects 40 years and older, the awareness rate for hypertension was significantly higher than the awareness rate for hypercholesterolemia (75.0% vs. 59.2%, p<0.001). The percentage of untreated subjects with hypertension was significantly lower than the percentage of untreated subjects with hypercholesterolemia (41.0% vs. 57.1%, p<0.001). Although Japanese workers ≥40 years old have a higher awareness of and are more often treated for hypertension than for hypercholesterolemia, there are still many unaware and untreated individuals with either disease in all age groups. It is important to increase the awareness of risk factors in individuals with positive findings for these conditions.
Similar content being viewed by others
Article PDF
References
Iida M, Ueda K, Okayama A, et al: Impact of elevated blood pressure on mortality from all causes, cardiovascular diseases, heart disease and stroke among Japanese: 14 year follow-up of randomly selected population from Japanese—Nippon data 80. J Hum Hypertens 2003; 17: 851–857.
Ueshima H : Changes in dietary habits, cardiovascular risk factors and mortality in Japan. Acta Cardiol 1990; 45: 311–327.
Okamura T, Kadowaki T, Hayakawa T, et al: What cause of mortality can we predict by cholesterol screening in the Japanese general population? J Intern Med 2003; 253: 169–180.
Okayama A, Kadowaki Y, Okamura T, Hayakawa T, Ueshima H, The NIPPON DATA80 Research Group: Age-specific effects of systolic and diastolic blood pressures on mortality due to cardiovascular diseases among Japanese men (NIPPON DATA80). J Hypertens 2006; 24: 459–462.
National Cholesterol Education Program Expert Panel : Executive summary of the third report of the National Cholesterol Education Program (NCEP) Expert Panel on Detection, Evaluation, and Treatment of High Blood Cholesterol in Adults (Adult Treatment Panel III). JAMA 2001; 285: 2486–2497.
Japan Atherosclerosis Society : Japan Atherosclerosis Society Guideline for Diagnosis and Treatment of Atherosclerotic Cardiovascular Diseases. Tokyo, Japan Atherosclerosis Society, 2002 ( in Japanese).
Guidelines Subcommittee of the Japanese Society of Hypertension : Japanese Society of Hypertension Guidelines for the Management of Hypertension (JSH 2000). Tokyo, Japanese Society of Hypertension, 2000 ( in Japanese).
Chobanian AV, Bakris GL, Black HR, et al: Seventh report of the Joint National Committee on Prevention, Detection, Evaluation, and Treatment of High Blood Pressure. Hypertension 2003; 42: 1206–1252.
Hajjar I, Kotchen TA : Trends in prevalence, awareness, treatment, and control of hypertension in the United States, 1988–2000. JAMA 2003; 290: 199–206.
Kearney PM, Whelton M, Reynolds K, Whelton PK, He J : Worldwide prevalence of hypertension: a systematic review. J Hypertens 2004; 22: 11–19.
Ford ES, Mokdad AH, Giles WH, Mensah GA : Serum total cholesterol concentrations and awareness, treatment, and control of hypercholesterolemia among US adults: findings from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 1999 to 2000. Circulation 2003; 107: 2185–2189.
Asai Y, Ishikawa S, Kayaba K, et al: Prevalence, awareness, treatment, and control of hypertension in Japanese rural communities. Nippon Koshu Eisei Zasshi 2001; 48: 827–836 ( in Japanese).
Wang Z, Wu Y, Zhao L, et al: Trends in prevalence, awareness, treatment and control of hypertension in the middle-aged population of China, 1992–1998. Hypertens Res 2004; 27: 703–709.
Okamura T, Tanaka T, Babazono A, et al: The High-Risk and Population Strategy for Occupational Health Promotion (HIPOP-OHP) Study: study design and cardiovascular risk factors at the baseline survey. J Hum Hypertens 2004; 18: 475–485.
Nakamura M, Sato S, Shimamoto T : Improvement in Japanese clinical laboratory measurements of total cholesterol and HDL-cholesterol by the US Cholesterol Reference Method Laboratory Network. J Atheroscler Thromb 2003; 10: 145–153.
Guidelines Subcommittee : 1999 World Health Organization–International Society of Hypertension Guidelines for the Management of Hypertension. J Hypertens 1999; 17: 151–183.
Okamura T, Tanaka T, Takebayashi T, et al: Methodological issues for a large-scale intervention trial of lifestyle modification: interim assessment of the High-Risk and Population Strategy for Occupational Health Promotion (HIPOP-OHP) Study. Environ Health Prev Med 2004; 9: 137–143.
Statistics and Information Department, Minister's Secretariat, Ministry of Health and Welfare : Vital Statistics, 1965–90, Japan. Tokyo, Statistics and Information Department, Minister's Secretariat, Ministry of Health and Welfare, 1965–1990 ( in Japanese).
Kitamura A, Iso H, Iida M, et al: Trends in the incidence of coronary heart disease and stroke and the prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors among Japanese men from 1963 to 1994. Am J Med 2002; 112: 104–109.
Okayama A, Ueshima H, Marmot M, Elliott P, Choudhury SR, Kita Y : Generational and regional differences in trends of mortality from ischemic heart disease in Japan from 1969 to 1992. Am J Epidemiol 2001; 153: 1191–1198.
Okayama A, Chiba N, Ueshima H : Non-pharmacological intervention study of hypercholesterolemia among middle-aged people. Environ Health Prev Med 2004; 9: 165–169.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Consortia
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Tanaka, T., Okamura, T., Yamagata, Z. et al. Awareness and Treatment of Hypertension and Hypercholesterolemia in Japanese Workers: The High-Risk and Population Strategy for Occupational Health Promotion (HIPOP-OHP) Study. Hypertens Res 30, 921–928 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1291/hypres.30.921
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1291/hypres.30.921
Keywords
This article is cited by
-
Antidyslipidemic Drug Prescriptions and Lipid Control Status After Unfavorable Annual Health Checkup Results: A Retrospective Cohort Study Using a Health Insurance Database
Drugs - Real World Outcomes (2021)
-
Relationship of Annual Health Checkups with the Subject’s Subsequent Behavior of Cardiovascular Risk Management in a Real-World Setting in Japan: A Retrospective Cohort Study on Changes in Antihypertensive Drug Prescription and Blood Pressure from 2015 to 2017
Drugs - Real World Outcomes (2021)
-
Relationship between outpatient visit frequency and hypertension control: a 9-year occupational cohort study
Hypertension Research (2016)
-
Association between prehypertension and chronic kidney disease in the Japanese general population
Kidney International (2012)