Black Caribbean and African men are at high risk of developing high blood pressure.
What is high blood pressure?
Your blood pressure pushes blood through your body, but if it is too high, this means your heart is under more pressure than it should be. It is important to know if you have high blood pressure as it is often a warning sign for other health conditions such as weakening your kidneys, or it can lead to a stroke or heart attack.
Why does your blood pressure matter?
High blood pressure is known as the ‘silent killer’ because often there are no symptoms to tell you that you have developed it. So it is important to check your blood pressure by getting it measured when required, for example through the NHS Health Check.
The project
Race Equality Foundation, in partnership with Men’s Health Forum, Faith Action and Clinks, developed a community-centred programme to offer blood pressure testing and raise awareness amongst Black African and Caribbean males. The programme was piloted in barbershops, a bus depot and a local church in three London boroughs.
Download the leaflets – leaflet 1 and leaflet 2.
This project has now been published in the NICE Shared Learning Database and the Public Health England Library.
For further information on the project, contact Tracey Bignall via email tracey@racefound.org.uk.
Resources and further information
There are lifestyle changes that you can make to help improve your blood pressure and details can be found on the following web sites.
British Heart Foundation – high blood pressure information
https://www.bhf.org.uk/informationsupport/publications/conditions
High blood pressure and ethnicity
https://www.bhf.org.uk/informationsupport/risk-factors/ethnicity
High blood pressure and African and Caribbean people
https://www.bhf.org.uk/informationsupport/risk-factors/ethnicity/your-
ethnicity-and-heart-disease—african-caribbean
NHS Health Check
Checking your blood pressure regularly, as offered through the NHS Health Check,
will let you know if you have high blood pressure and what steps you can take to
manage it:
https://www.healthcheck.nhs.uk/commissioners-and-providers/marketing/leaflets/
A number of apps and have been developed which help to examine your health
including and look at high blood pressure:
NHS Health Help Now
https://www.nhs.uk/apps-library/health-help-now/
Quizzes
https://www.nhs.uk/oneyou/for-your-body/check-your-health/heart-age-test/
https://www.nhs.uk/oneyou/how-are-you-quiz/
http://maymeasure.com/
