Make the time, ease your pressure
Know Your Numbers! Week 2023 took on high blood pressure by encouraging you to make the time to ease your pressure
This September, we encouraged all UK adults to Know Their Numbers! to prevent heart attacks and strokes. We took to the streets with blood pressure checks and 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.
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 Make the time, ease your pressure.
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, it’s essential to make the time to check your blood pressure to see if it’s under control.
It’s never too early OR too late to start checking your blood pressure. Your blood pressure is very important no matter your age. High blood pressure is not simply a part of growing old. You can take steps to know your numbers and lower it if it’s high no matter how old you are.
Nearly two-thirds of people aged 30-50 could be living with undiagnosed high blood pressure!
Our recent opinion poll [1] showed that:
- A massive 63% of UK adults aged between 30–50 don't know their current blood pressure numbers and could be living daily with undiagnosed blood pressure – increasing their chances of stroke, heart attack, and heart failure which, ironically, are amongst their most feared health conditions (i.e. heart attacks, 31% and stroke, 24%)…
- …72% of respondents agree that blood pressure is not only a concern for older people (i.e., those over the age of 50+).
- and 68% agree that knowing their blood pressure numbers is important whilst two-thirds (66%) of those surveyed claim to understand that persistently high blood pressure can lead to a heart attack.
Hemini Bharadia, Marketing Manager for Blood Pressure UK explains: "We encourage the public to make the time to control their health and get their blood pressure checked ideally via home blood pressure monitoring or at their local pharmacy or GP. Home blood pressure monitoring is an effective and inexpensive way to manage your blood pressure and the evidence behind it continues to get stronger.”
The blood pressure roadshow continued for 2023!
For the second time, Know Your Numbers! Week brought free blood pressure checks to the high street with the blood pressure roadshow, organised by Kinetik Wellbeing in part association with Blood Pressure UK. Thousands of people came out for a check in Leeds, Manchester, and London – and many felt grateful to have somewhere to go for a check while it’s harder to see the GP. Also, new for 2023 and launched in September, check out Kinetik Wellbeing’s new digital service, http://mybloodpressure.co.uk, which gives you the tools to understand and manage your blood pressure effectively.
Acting local
Local councils, NHS Integrated Care Systems, hospitals, libraries and universities spread the word online while some hospitals and councils organised stands offering free blood pressure checks in person. This included One Bromley Local Care Partnership, which is part of the South East London Integrated Care System. Their campaign in support of Know Your Numbers! Week 2023 was a great initiative and showed immense dedication. They even wrote a fantastic poem on blood pressure, which we thought was very creative.
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 by sharing images of their numbers after checking their blood pressure at home. It was great to see how people were encouraged to measure at home.
Twitter was exceptionally busy this year
For the first time since 2020, our hashtag #KnowYourNumbers trended on Twitter again. Prior to 2020, we trended on Twitter each year since 2016. This year, we even trended for three consecutive days. It was amazing to see our campaign trending again and shows how many people online were engaging about blood pressure and knowing your numbers, which was wonderful!
NHS England, NHS UK, and the Department of Health and Social Care all got busy on Twitter, with further support from charities, public figures, and health bodies across the UK, including Scarborough Athletic FC, East of England Ambulance Service, Yorkshire Ambulance, The Stroke Association, BHF, Drinkaware, The International Society of Hypertension, Royal Society for Public Health, The Race Equalities Foundation, Professor Jamie Waterall – Deputy Chief Nurse at the Office for Health Improvement & Disparities, and Dr Shahed Ahmad – NHS England and NHS Improvement Medical Director in the South East.
LloydsDirect also set up blood pressure stations in their offices to encourage colleagues to take the time and get tested. The event was hugely successful, and employees loved the opportunity to get tested and find out more about their heart health.
Lots of health professionals across the UK also tweeted messages of support and videos to support the campaign.
The press got behind the campaign
We made lots of headlines in national and regional news with coverage in the Times, the Daily Express, The Daily Mirror online, The Sun online, Belfast Live, The Daily Record in Scotland, Wales online, BBC Morning Live TV, and 149 regional news providers. Our Trustee Pauline Swift and CEO Phil Pyatt gave interviews for BBC Radio in Derby, Coventry and Warwickshire, West Midlands, Sheffield, Leeds, Radio Norwich, 3 Counties, and UK Health Radio.
[1] The research was conducted by Censuswide of 1,008 people aged 30 to 50yrs in the UK between 18.07.23 to 21.07 23. 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