Know your Numbers! Week - You Have the Power - Sept 24
Know Your Numbers! Week 2024 took on high blood pressure by encouraging you that ‘You have the Power’ to successfully manage your blood pressure at home.
This September, we encouraged all UK adults to Know Their Numbers! to prevent heart attacks and strokes. We took to the airwaves with interviews to encourage all adults to start measuring their blood pressure at home, as it’s the easiest way to find out your blood pressure numbers and make healthy changes to their lifestyle, and we took to some streets with blood pressure checks.
High blood pressure can lead to heart attacks, strokes, and other diseases but it usually has no symptoms, which is why every year our awareness-raising campaign highlights why it’s so important to get a check.
The theme was You Have the Power.
With the everyday pressures of life, we know that understanding why it’s important to know your blood pressure numbers and taking the time to get them measured isn’t always a priority. However, did you know that getting a blood pressure check is the first step to preventing heart attacks and strokes? High blood pressure is a major cause of these diseases but usually has no symptoms until it’s too late, which is why it’s known as ‘the silent killer’. Knowing your numbers means you can start making healthy lifestyle changes or start taking medicines if you need them to bring your blood pressure down to a healthy level. So, the power is in your hands to check your blood pressure to see if it’s under control.
Your blood pressure is very important no matter your age. High blood pressure is not simply a part of growing old. You have the power to successfully manage your blood pressure no matter how old you are - but you have to know your numbers first. Get checked to beat ‘the silent killer’ before damage is done.
Nearly 4 million adults could be living with undiagnosed high blood pressure.
Our recent opinion poll [1] showed that:
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- Just under 4 million adults living in the UK aged 18-64 could be living daily with undiagnosed high blood pressure as one in ten of the UK population has never had their blood pressure checked.
- Given salt intake is a major cause of high blood pressure. One in five Brits (20%) surveyed is consuming nearly double (11.8g) the NHS’s recommended amount of salt (6g) in their diet.
- Despite nearly (87.5%) of the population knowing that salt intake affects blood pressure, over two-fifths (42.5%) of Brits have never made any changes to their diet to reduce salt intake.
- Furthermore, whilst nearly 65% of the population claim to be confident in their ability to identify foods high in salt, with bacon and ham being ranked in the poll as the saltiest category (42.3%), respondents were less knowledgeable about how salty cheese is (5.4%).
As a nation, if we cut one gram of salt from our average daily salt intake, this would cause a fall in blood pressure and there would be approximately 4,000 fewer premature deaths from strokes and heart attacks each year in the UK.
Hemini Bharadia, Marketing Manager for Blood Pressure UK explains:
"High blood pressure is largely symptomless and the single biggest preventable cause of death in the UK, but the more people that test themselves, ideally with a home blood pressure monitor, the more chance they have of controlling it. Having your blood pressure checked at home, at your local pharmacy or GP is a cost-effective and reliable method to manage blood pressure, with growing evidence supporting its benefits. You have the power.”
The press got behind the campaign
Our press release and opinion poll made lots of headlines in national and regional news. Our Chair Dr. Pauline Swift gave several interviews with some highlights of the coverage below:
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The Guardian online |
BBC Radio Norfolk |
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The Guardian print |
World Health On Radio – content sent to 98 radio stations and broadcast to 6.5m listeners |
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The Sun online |
Yahoo News |
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The Daily Star print |
Edinburgh Evening News |
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London Live TV |
Belfast Newsletter |
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Tyne Tees TV |
Sheffield Star |
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UCB Radio |
London Daily News |
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BBC Radio Manchester |
Yorkshire Evening Post |
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BBC Radio Solent |
Training Matters – pharmacy press
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BBC Radio Norfolk |
The Mirror online |
Home monitoring
Know Your Numbers! Week is now primarily an online campaign with a focus on the importance of measuring your blood pressure at home. We sent our home monitoring resources to all registered participants of Know Your Numbers! Week and many showed their support online. It was great to see how people were encouraged to measure at home.
While the campaign is now online, some events took place during the week, and you can see some highlights of these below.
Acting local
Local councils, NHS Integrated Care Systems, hospitals, businesses, and universities spread the word online and many libraries and GP surgeries offered and encouraged self-monitoring BP testing, while some hospitals, councils, and businesses organised stands offering free blood pressure checks in person.
X (formerly Twitter)
It was fantastic to see so many people online engaging about blood pressure and knowing your numbers.
Some of our Pressure Partners in 2024 included Avanti West Coast, Boots, B&M Stores, The British Army, Department of Work and Pensions, Hilton Hotels, Mitie, Natural England, NHS England, Holly Health, Uniquely Health Taylor Wimpey, Royal Mail, Scarborough Athletic FC, Stroke Association, and Tesco.
Many health professionals across the UK also tweeted messages of support and videos to support the campaign.
A huge thank you to everyone who took part!
The research was conducted by Censuswide with 2000 UK Respondents (Nat Rep) between 12.06.2024 - 14.06.2024. Censuswide abide by and employ members of the Market Research Society which is based on the ESOMAR principles and are members of The British Polling Council.