Shifa Saleem, Naila Qaiser, Adeel Tahir, Hassan Mahmood.
Management of Hypertension and Diabetes Mellitus at Primary Health Care Settings in Pakistan; Clinician\'s Perspective.
Med Forum Jan ;2(8):98-9.

It is very important to maintain optimal nutritional status at any stage of life, so as to prevent some chronic diseases, reduced frequency of episodes of illness, less hospital visits, fewer complications and a high survival rate1. Over 80% of CVD deaths take place in low- and middle-income countries2. Despite convincing evidence that lowering of blood pressure decreases cardiovascular morbidity and mortality, the control of hypertension has been poor in developing countries due to a multitude of reasons.According to National Health Survey Pakistan (NHSP) hypertension was shown to affect 18% of adults aged >15 years and around 33% of adults above 45 years3. In Pakistan there is a lack of adequate data on the NCD disease burden as well as the risk factors involved. The prevalence of hypertension and diabetesmellitus in rural areas of Pakistan is in range of 4.5-22%4 and about 17.5%5 respectively.In rural areas, the availability and quality of the first level care public facilities is not adequate. There is significant costs involves in terms of lost of productive time, lost opportunities, impaired quality of life and money spend on the health care. Much of the burden, however, can be prevented by effective disease management strategies that include initiating programs aiming to prevent, as well as manage the targeted nutrition-related chronic diseases at the primary health care level.

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