Sleeves up, risk down: May Measurement Month Returns in 2021
Roll your sleeves up and get your blood pressure tested as part of the world’s largest blood pressure screening campaign
May Measurement Month (MMM) is the global campaign led by the International Society of Hypertension (ISH) to raise awareness of the need to get your blood pressure checked. It’s back for 2021 and over 85 countries have signed up to take part, aiming to test 1 million people.
MMM builds on the World Hypertension League’s (WHL) established World Hypertension Day, held on 17 May each year, with health professionals volunteering to offer free blood pressure measurements at local screening sites around the world.
After three successful years, over 4.2 million people were screened in almost 100 countries and almost 1 million people identified with untreated or inadequately treated hypertension. MMM was forced to pause in 2020, but is returning in 2021.
Support MMM – roll your sleeves up and get your blood pressure tested
You can support MMM this year by getting your blood pressure tested and spreading the message with your friends and communities.
visit www.maymeasure.org
#SleevesUp
#GetChecked
Dates for blood pressure screening in the UK are being planned at the moment and the website will be kept updated.
This year’s campaign: Sleeves Up, Risk Down
MMM are on a mission to educate people on the importance of checking their blood pressure because raised blood pressure is the number one cause of preventable death worldwide.
Even with increased threats to public health due to COVID-19 over the last year, raised blood pressure remains the biggest single contributing risk factor to global death causing about 30,000 deaths per day. It is therefore important that MMM continues to increase public understanding of the importance of blood pressure measurement, and helps to save lives that need not be lost.
The new campaign, Sleeves Up, Risk Down, encourages participants to ‘roll their sleeves up’ to help tackle and raise awareness of hypertension and the 10.8 million preventable deaths it causes each year.
Screenings have been extended to take place between May and November to support COVID-19 restrictions around the world. MMM are also working to find alternative ways to screen blood pressure where the usual screening programme isn’t possible.
The third MMM supplement will be published in the European Heart Journal Supplements and will be distributed globally in May. It will discuss the findings and outcomes from 47 countries from the 2019 campaign.
Katharine Jenner, CEO of Blood Pressure UK, says “We’re delighted to see the return of MMM this year. The campaign is more important now than ever as the pandemic is affecting our health in myriad ways. Here at Blood Pressure UK, we can’t wait to roll our sleeves up and get involved.”