INILAH, Jakarta – The Indonesian Hypertension Association (Indonesian Society of Hypertension) emphasizes that hypertension is a dangerous congenital disease (comorbid) in COVID-19 patients and recommends people to monitor their blood pressure more frequently during the pandemic.
“Guidelines from the American Heart Association (AHA) emphasize that people with hypertension will face a more severe risk of complications if they are infected with the COVID-19 virus,” said internal medicine specialist Tunggul Situmorang, Chair of the Indonesian Society of Hypertension (InaSH), in OMRON & InaSH Virtual Media Briefing, Wednesday (15/10/2020).
Tunggul recommends that people pay more attention to the risk of hypertension by checking their blood pressure at home more regularly.
The Ministry of Health said 13.3 percent of COVID-19 patients with congenital or comorbid hypertension or high blood pressure had died.
Hypertension is the highest risk factor for COVID-19 patients to die, followed by other comorbid diseases such as diabetes, coronary heart disease, and kidney failure.
Of the 1,641 COVID-19 patients, most of them had hypertension congenital disease with a percentage of 50.8 percent.
Tunggul said, many people with hypertension do not experience any symptoms so they feel themselves in good health.
“Therefore, we must measure blood pressure frequently,” he said.
Neurology specialist Yuda Turana added that regularly measuring blood pressure at home is useful for avoiding strokes and heart attacks.
“Measuring blood pressure at home predicts organ damage better than clinical blood pressure measurements,” said Yuda, Member of the Board of Trustees and the Supervisory Agency for the Indonesian Hypertension Association.
He said patients who monitor blood pressure at home have a tendency to take medication regularly. Compliance is important, because without adherence, even the best medicine will not result.
There are several things that must be done before measuring blood pressure, including not smoking, exercising and consuming caffeine at least 30 minutes beforehand. You should not eat before checking blood pressure and first empty the bladder.
When taking blood pressure at home, Yuda suggested measuring it more than once, then recording all the results.
“At least two or three times, the distance between measurements is approximately one minute,” he said.
Recording should be done routinely in the morning before treatment, then at night before going to bed.
Yuda explained, although measuring blood pressure in the clinic remains the basis for hypertension management, measuring yourself at home is also important additional information.
“In addition to improving hypertension control, home blood pressure checks are superior to clinical blood pressure checks in predicting future cardiovascular disease,” said Yuda.
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