Next Level Health: a holistic health and wellbeing program to empower New Zealand women

Improving equity in women’s health requires gender-specific and empowering approaches. However, health programs often disempower women by adopting a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach that emphasizes diet, exercise and weight loss over other important aspects like sleep and mental wellbeing. This article reports on the design of Next Level Health (NLH), a program that aims to empower women through developing a wide range of health behaviors to support their holistic wellbeing. NLH is grounded by ethics, theory and evidence to support women to make achievable, sustainable changes that are relevant to their everyday lives. Women utilized the NLH framework to develop an integrative health routine across six domains: physical activity, sleep, nutrition, eating behavior, self-care and stress management. The framework guided them to set small, incremental goals that were adaptive to their needs and built from their existing circumstances. Participants reflected on their progress with a facilitator during monthly meetings, accessed a social media support page and received monthly text messages. Health programs remain an essential approach to improving women’s health alongside community- and policy-level strategies. The development of NLH exemplifies how evidence may partner with modern health promotion values to inform relevant and ethical program design for women

May Measurement Month 2017: an analysis of blood pressure screening results worldwide

Background: Increased blood pressure is the biggest contributor to the global burden of disease and mortality. Data suggest that less than half of the population with hypertension is aware of it. May Measurement Month was initiated to raise awareness of the importance of blood pressure and as a pragmatic interim solution to the shortfall in screening programmes. Methods: This cross-sectional survey included volunteer adults (≥18 years) who ideally had not had their blood pressures measured in the past year. Each participant had their blood pressure measured three times and received a a questionnaire about demographic, lifestyle, and environmental factors. The primary objective was to raise awareness of blood pressure, measured by number of countries involved, number of people screened, and number of people who have untreated or inadequately treated hypertension (defined as systolic blood pressure ≥140 mm Hg or diastolic blood pressure ≥90 mm Hg, or both, or on the basis of receiving antihypertensive medication). Multiple imputation was used to estimate the mean of the second and third blood pressure readings if these were not recorded. Measures of association were analysed using linear mixed models. Findings: Data were collected from 1 201 570 individuals in 80 countries. After imputation, of the 1 128 635 individuals for whom a mean of the second and third readings was available, 393 924 (34·9%) individuals had hypertension. 153 905 (17·3%) of 888 616 individuals who were not receiving antihypertensive treatment were hypertensive, and 105 456 (46·3%) of the 227 721 individuals receiving treatment did not have controlled blood pressure. Significant differences in adjusted blood pressures and hypertension prevalence were apparent between regions. Adjusted blood pressure was higher in association with antihypertensive medication, diabetes, cerebrovascular disease, smoking, and alcohol consumption. Blood pressure was higher when measured on the right arm than on the left arm, and blood pressure was highest on Saturdays. Interpretation: Inexpensive global screening of blood pressure is achievable using volunteers and convenience sampling. Pending the set-up of systematic surveillance systems worldwide, MMM will be repeated annually to raise awareness of blood pressure. Funding: International Society of Hypertension, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Servier Pharmaceutical Co