Arterial hypertension-attributable mortality in Europe, 2012–2021

Objectives: – Comprehensive and updated assessments of arterial hypertension (HTN)-attributable mortality trends across Europe are limited. We evaluated the HTN-attributed mortality trends in Europe between 2012 and 2021, examining variations by age, sex, and European region.Methods: – We extracted heart failure-attributed mortality data from the WHO mortality dataset for 2012–2021. Age-adjusted mortality rates (AAMRs) were analyzed using joinpoint regression modeling, expressed as average annual percentage change (AAPC) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs). A parallelism test compared trend differences across groups.Results: – From 2012 to 2021, 1658592 individuals (773129 men and 885463 women) died due to HTN, equating to 3932.3 deaths per 100000 population. Overall, the AAMR increased (AAPC: +1.6%; 95% CI: 1.2–2.1; P<0.001), without significant differences between sexes (P for parallelism 0.38). HTN-attributable mortality trend had a higher increase among patients aged 70 or older compared to those aged less than 70years (P for parallelism 0.007). Regionally, AAMRs increase in Northern (AAPC: +0.7%; 95% CI: 0.1–1.3; P=0.002) and Eastern (AAPC: +2.79%; 95% CI: 1.8–3.6; P<0.001) while plateaued in Western and Southern Europe (AAPC: −0.5%; 95% CI: −1.2 to 10.2; P=0.09). Disparities in hypertension-attributable mortality were observed among countries.Conclusion: – HTN-attributed mortality in Europe increased between 2012 and 2021. Substantial disparities persist across European regions and countries.