If these individuals' high blood pressure remains untreated over their lifetime, the team estimate that this could lead to more than 13,500 additional cardiovascular events, including over 2,000 heart attacks and 3,000 strokes.
Lead author Professor Reecha Sofat, associate director at the BHF Data Science Center, Breckenridge Chair of Clinical Pharmacology at the University of Liverpool, said,"Measures to prevent infection spread were necessary and undoubtedly saved lives. The NHS has already taken important and positive steps towards identifying people with high blood pressure as early as possible.
Identifying the individuals who missed starting medication as soon as possible will be critical to reduce their cardiovascular risk. The team believe that identifying those who missed out on blood pressure treatment within five years would reduce the total number of cardiovascular events to just over 2,700.
Professor Sofat added,"Despite the incredible work done by NHS staff, our data show that we're still not identifying people with cardiovascular risk factors at the same rate as we were before the pandemic.