Sudbury pharmacist says high blood pressure going untreated during pandemic

Shoppers Drug Mart says the number of people starting prescriptions to manage high blood pressure, or hypertension, is down 30 percent compared to pre-pandemic levels, a concerning figure for pharmacists.

Left untreated, high blood pressure can increase one's risk of heart disease, kidney failure and stroke. These can all raise the risk of premature death.

"Managing hypertension early and through appropriate clinical care, including lifestyle changes, diet, exercise and medications ... is key to preventing any kind of future complications," says Catherine Nolin, a pharmacy owner and pharmacist at two Shoppers Drug Mart locations in Sudbury.

The Shoppers Drug Mart release says roughly one in five people with hypertension is either not receiving care or not aware that they should access treatment.

The Canadian government says risk factors for developing hypertension include not exercising enough, poor diet and pre-existing conditions like diabetes or kidney disease. Alcohol consumption and family history also influence risk levels.

Many of those factors have worsened during the stresses and disruptions of the pandemic.

Since the start of COVID-19, the number of in-person doctor visits has dropped by roughly 79 per cent in Ontario, according to a Canadian Medical Association Journal article.

"You can monitor your blood pressure at home. You can stop by your pharmacy and have your pharmacist monitor your blood pressure for you. But people are not seeking that right now. They're staying home," Nolin says.

Through a health care worker survey, the Heart and Stroke Foundation has found similar declining trends in patients getting care for heart disease and stroke.

Nine in 10 health workers and researchers say they worry that the health of heart disease and stroke patients has dropped during the pandemic; nearly all of those respondents say not getting diagnosed and not starting treatment are among the principal challenges.

Half say they worry about people without pre-existing conditions seeing their health decline, too.

"Those patients needed care, they needed to be seen. Now I am afraid we are going to see a wave of patients who are going to need both more care and more intense care," says Dr. Clare Atzema, an emergency medicine physician at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre and a researcher who receives Heart and Stroke Foundation funding, in a release.

Nolin says hypertension can be well-managed if caught and treated early. This can reduce the risk of stroke by up to 40 per cent and lower the risk of coronary heart disease by up to 14 per cent. 

Nolin says appropriate medical care and lifestyle changes can together lessen the impacts of hypertension.