• The “treatment cascade” of hypertension is an important tool to understand and assess the performance of health systems in delivering health care to patients with hypertension.

• The various stages of the hypertension treatment cascade include

1. The proportion of people screened for hypertension

2. The proportion of people aware of their diagnosis

3. The proportion of people on appropriate treatment

4. The proportion of people with their blood pressure under control

• Data from the National Family Health Survey (NFHS)-5 survey of 1,267,786 people, which included males 15-54 years and females in the reproductive age group females was analyzed to identify the proportion of people at each stage of the treatment cascade.

• The national prevalence of hypertension was found to be 18.3%, among which men had a higher prevalence at 21.6% as compared to women at 14.8%.

• Though 70.5% of hypertensives had been screened at least once, only 34.3% were aware of their hypertensive status.

• The proportion of hypertensives under treatment was abnormally low at 13.7%, out of which only 7.8% had their BP under control.

• Multinomial logistic regression found males, illiterates, poor, never married, residents of rural areas, smokers/tobacco users, and alcoholic users were less likely to be at any level in the treatment cascade.

• Hence there is a need to make hypertension diagnosis and treatment more accessible, especially to the vulnerable groups.

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