European Journal of Preventive Cardiology · Nov 14, 2025

Elevated blood pressure levels among 533 167 adults living in Sub-Saharan Africa: a systematic review and meta-analysis

By Chen A, Chan YK, Mocumbi AO et al.

AIMS: Synthesizing contemporary data from sub-Saharan African countries, we did a systematic review and meta-analysis of blood pressure (BP) levels and hypertension among adults living in the region. METHODS AND RESULTS: We searched PubMed and other databases to identify studies published from 1 January 2010 to 31 December 2021. We used a random-effects model to estimate the pooled-prevalence of hypertension and mean systolic/diastolic BP overall and on a sex- and age-specific basis. Heterogeneity (I²) was assessed via the χ² test on Cochran's Q statistic. We identified 170 high-quality studies (195 samples) comprising 533 167 adults living in 26 countries. The pooled prevalence of hypertension was 30.5% (95% CI 28.4-32.6%). Overall mean systolic/diastolic BP was 128 (95% CI 127-129)/80 (95% CI 79-80) mmHg, with males recording higher mean BP levels (3.10 [95% CI 2.30-3.90]/0.69 [95% CI 0.10-1.29] mmHg) compared with females. Reflecting increasingly higher BP levels with age, the pooled estimates of hypertension prevalence initially rose three-fold (from 10.6% [95% CI 8.2-13.0%] to 30.9% [95% CI 27.8-34.0%]) in those aged 21-30 to 41-50 years, and then two-fold to 66.4% (95% CI 64.2-68.7%) among those aged 71-80 years, respectively. Hypertension prevalence was lower in healthy weight [28.4% (95% CI 26.1-30.6%)] compared with overweight [35.8% (95% CI 31.4-40.1%)] adults. Regionally, prevalent hypertension was lowest in those living in Eastern Africa [27.2% (95% CI 24.8-29.7%)]. CONCLUSION: Our findings suggest a steep age-related pattern of increasing BP levels in the region that will adversely affect millions of people within the next 10-20 years without urgent intervention.

doi.org/10.1093/eurjpc/zwaf706Open accessPubMed 41232564Populations