The Surgeon General's Call to Action to Control Hypertension

At a glance

The Surgeon General's Call to Action to Control Hypertension (Call to Action) seeks to avert the negative health effects of hypertension by identifying evidence-based interventions that can be implemented, adapted, and expanded in diverse settings across the United States.

Collage of people in various professions and settings along with the CDC logo saying, “We’ve Got This!”

Overview

Nearly half of US adults have hypertension, or high blood pressure, and only about 1 in 4 of those individuals has their hypertension under control.1

Hypertension is a major preventable risk factor for heart disease and stroke, which are the first and fifth leading causes of death in the United States, respectively.1

The Surgeon General's Call to Action to Control Hypertension seeks to avert the negative health effects of hypertension by identifying evidence-based interventions that can be implemented, adapted, and expanded in diverse settings across the United States.

The Call to Action outlines three goals to improve hypertension control, and each goal is supported by strategies to achieve success:

  • Goal 1. Make hypertension control a national priority.
  • Goal 2. Ensure that the places where people live, learn, work, and play support hypertension control.
  • Goal 3. Optimize patient care for hypertension.
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Goals and Strategies to Improve Hypertension Control. Logos of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the U.S. Public Health Service. The strategies fall into three categories: Prioritize Control Nationally (illustrated by a golf flag with a heart and EKG graph line); cultivate community supports (illustrated by a pair of hands holding a heart); and optimize patient care (illustrated by a silhouette of a health care professional wearing a stethoscope. Prioritize Control Nationally: Increase awareness of health risks, recognize economic burden, and eliminate disparities. Cultivate Community Supports: Promote physical activity opportunities, promote health food opportunities, and connect to lifestyle change resources. Optimize Patient Care: Use standardized treatment approaches, promote team-based care, empower and equip patients, and recognize and reward clinicians.
Goals and strategies to improve hypertension control.

The Call to Action also:

  • Recognizes the conditions in which people are born, live, learn, work, play, worship, and age directly impact opportunities for success and drive health equity.
  • Focuses on specific and tangible interventions that can be tailored, replicated, and scaled to impact one of the highest burden health conditions in the United States.
  • Provides targeted strategies that different sectors can take to collectively improve hypertension control across the United States.

To learn more about the Call to Action and read other reports, visit the Office of the Surgeon General.

We must act to preserve the nation's cardiovascular health now and into the future.

Together, we've got this!

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Content Source:
National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion; About the Division for Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention
  1. Ritchey MD, Gillespie C, Wozniak G, et al. Potential need for expanded pharmacologic treatment and lifestyle modification services under the 2017 ACC/AHA Hypertension Guideline. J Clin Hypertens (Greenwich). 2018;20(10):1377–1391.