Engagement - News and Updates
Hypertension (High blood pressure)
SW Regional Hypertension (High blood pressure) survey
The Somerset ‘Know Your Numbers’ and ‘Take the Pressure Off Hypertension’ (high blood pressure) campaign is an initiative dedicated to raising awareness about the importance of regular blood pressure monitoring.
Why is the Hypertension campaign important for Somerset?
In Somerset, we believe in taking proactive steps towards a healthier community, and this campaign is at the heart of that belief. Around 50,000 people in Somerset have high blood pressure and don’t know it.
Many people will have no symptoms of high blood pressure, often termed the ‘silent killer’. But it can lead to serious health issues like heart disease, stroke, and kidney problems if left unchecked. The “Know Your Numbers” and “Take the Pressure Off” campaign is designed to encourage residents, particularly those aged 40+, to regularly check their blood pressure and take necessary steps towards managing their health.
How have people’s feedback already shaped the Hypertension campaign?
NHS Somerset, together with Somerset Council have been testing people across Somerset to increase awareness and early detection of high blood pressure. As part of our initial engagement, in January we designed an online survey regarding your lived experiences. The feedback from this survey was used to shape our communication and engagement plans and you can read more here: High Blood Pressure (Hypertension) Survey Feedback - Our Somerset.
We also engaged around our communications materials, to ensure that these encourage more men to get their blood pressure tested. Since January, we have continued to use feedback to shape our communications, as well as testing peoples’ blood pressure across the county, at sports and community events, through our Somerset’s Big Conversation roadshow, at locations such as workplaces and we have worked hard to reach all of our diverse people and communities. To date, we have completed 2818 blood pressure checks.
What is the aim of the new SW regional Hypertension survey?
We have worked collaboratively with NHS England and our SW regional partners, to design an online survey that will give us more insight into people’s lived experiences. This will help us to better understand the challenges people experience in getting their blood pressure tested and factors which may motivate them to take this important step. The feedback from the survey will help us to review and evaluate our existing plans and will help to steer our engagement and communications. We will also be able to see if peoples’ views and approaches to getting their blood pressure tested have changed since January, in response to our campaign.
How can you support the Hypertension campaign?
Please could we ask you to complete the survey and to also share with your friends, family, colleagues and communities. We would like to gather as much feedback from Somerset residents as possible, to help ensure that the Hypertension campaign is a success. If you would like any resources, please do get in touch.
What is the close date of the survey?
Currently there is no specific close date, as we will continue with the survey until the sample size is sufficiently large enough to suggest that we won’t gain further feedback by running it longer.
How will find out more about the findings of this survey and how it shapes the campaign?
Once the survey has closed and the findings have been analysed, we will share the findings and details about how the feedback has been used to shape the campaign, ‘You Said, We Did’, on our Engagement News webpage: Our work with people and communities - NHS Somerset ICB
