Raising awareness of hypertension in Islington

Healthwatch Islington hosted a week long stall in Chapel Market in July 2022 to improve people's knowledge of hypertension.  They gave blood pressure checks to over 600 people, gave out information leaflets and advised on lifestyle changes that could lower risk.  They followed this up in July 2023 with a similar event and offered blood pressure checks at other community events they attended.

This report contains the key achievements from this piece of work:

They  helped over 1,300 people improve their understanding of hypertension, with the vast majority being Islington residents. 

They identified over 130 people with undiagnosed hypertension. They  directed them to seek another blood pressure check in a pharmacy or at their GP practice. The health professional could then advise them on an appropriate treatment pathway if hypertension was confirmed. 

They used motivational interviewing techniques to help residents who wanted to improve their health to think about what they could do to maintain or regain healthy blood pressure. They signposted them to services in the community such as exercise classes and walking groups and provided information resources. They saw 576 visits to the hypertension information page on their website. 

175 residents from communities that experience health inequalities attended healthy hearts workshops delivered by Healthwatch Islington's partners (the content was based on the Healthwatch training and British Heart Foundation leaflets). All 175 said that they found the information helpful, and 155 felt able to act on it. 

41 residents with an existing diagnosis of hypertension gave Healthwatch fedback on the support they received for the condition. Patients valued the advice they received for healthy living, in particular changing diet and doing more exercise. However, difficulties accessing appointments and communicating with their GP made this support less effective.