In the wake of Saturday’s “World Hypertension Day,” the Health Bureau (SSM) held a press conference on Friday in its premises in Rua Nova à Guia.
The press conference introduced the bureau’s latest progress in chronic disease prevention and control in Macau.
According to an SSM statement, the data shows that through the implementation of an innovative management model, the treatment rate for hypertension patients in Macau reached 89.6 percent last year, with the blood pressure control rate up by 14.1 percentage points year-on-year, and an additional 11,590 patients having achieved stable condition control.
According to the bureau, residents face challenges such as lack of healthy lifestyle habits, a continuous rise in chronic disease risks, and rapidly growing demands for healthcare.
According to the Health Bureau’s 2016 health survey, about 25 percent of residents suffer from hypertension, which, if not controlled in time, may lead to severe consequences such as myocardial infarction, commonly known as a heart attack.
According to the statement, since 2023, the bureau has run its “Chronic Disease Management Quality Indicator System,” adopting the “Plan-Do-Check-Act” (PDCA) cycle model.
This system has shown remarkable results, the statement said, with the comprehensive statistics for blood sugar, blood pressure, and blood lipids among diabetic patients having risen by 9.1 percent compared to 2023, reaching 29.3 percent.
According to the bureau, in order to enhance residents’ self-health management capabilities, the bureau plans to further strengthen its “My Health Depends on Me”* programme by providing self-service testing stations in locations such as libraries, markets, food courts, banks, and partner pharmacies. The “One Account” system has added a health tracking function to record blood pressure trends, with testing services used 1.144 million times in 2024, the statement pointed out.
According to the statement, between last Thursday and tomorrow the bureau will be holding community blood pressure screening activities, aiming to promote chronic disease prevention and provide guidance on healthy lifestyles.
Last year, such activities attracted over 12,000 participants. The bureau emphasised in its statement that it will continue to optimise prevention and control strategies, trying its best to advance its goal of “whole-life-cycle health” and jointly build a healthy Macau.
*The programme “My Health Depends on Me” is an SSM initiative that provides free blood pressure and weight check-up stations across Macau to help residents monitor their personal health. – DeepSeek
This poster was provided by the Health Bureau (SSM) on Friday to urge residents to join regular blood pressure testing programmes.
