South and Southeast Asia contain some of the world’s largest and most rapidly aging countries. This demographic shift is profoundly changing the health of populations: cardiovascular diseases are now the leading causes of death and are expected to become even more important as these populations continue to age. While cardiovascular diseases are highly preventable, countries in South and Southeast Asia are extremely far from their prevention potential. Our approach to tackling this prevention challenge is to use insights from the behavioral sciences to design and test interventions that encourage clinicians to provide better quality cardiovascular care and individuals to seek preventive care more regularly and adhere to clinician recommendations. Our goal is to find affordable and wide-reaching solutions for preventing cardiovascular disease in the region.

Research in this area:

Progress, stasis, and regression through the hypertension care continuum: Longitudinal evidence from population-based cohort data in four populous middle-income countries

Nicole Mauer, Pascal Geldsetzer, Jennifer Manne-Goehler, Justine Davies, Andrew C. Stokes, Margaret McConnell, Mohammed K. Ali, Volker Winkler, Nikkil Sudharsanan

Preprint currently under review

• Main question: How do adults with hypertension in middle-income countries move through care stages over time?

Understanding low mobilization for non-communicable diseases among people living with NCDs: A qualitative study on hypertension in urban South India

Carolin Kroeger, Shuba Kumar, Rani Mohanraj, Sripriya Kundem, Kate Bärnighausen, Nikkil Sudharsanan

Social Science & Medicine

• Main question: Given how widespread non-communicable diseases have become in urban India, why isn't there more individual and community mobilization to try and get governments to take action against NCDs?

The effect of home-based hypertension screening on blood pressure change over time in South Africa

Nikkil Sudharsanan*, Simiao Chen*, Michael Garber, Till Bärnighausen, Pascal Geldsetzer (*Joint first authors)

Health Affairs

• Main question: What is the effect of home-based hypertension screening (e.g. going to people's homes, measuring their blood pressure, and informing and referring those with high blood pressure to a doctor) on blood pressure over time?

Impact of community based screening for hypertension on blood pressure after two years: regression discontinuity analysis in a national cohort of older adults in China

Simiao Chen*, Nikkil Sudharsanan*, Feng Huang, Yuanli Liu, Pascal Geldsetzer, Till Bärnighausen (*Joint first authors)

BMJ

• Main question: What is the effect of home-based hypertension screening (e.g. going to people's homes, measuring their blood pressure, and informing and referring those with high blood pressure to a doctor) on blood pressure over time?

Hypertension knowledge and treatment initiation, adherence, and discontinuation among adults in Chennai, India: a cross-sectional study

Nikkil Sudharsanan, Mohammed K. Ali, Margaret McConnell

BMJ Open

• Main question: What proportion of adults with diagnosed hypertension consistently take their medicines and what are some of the reasons why individuals may discontinue treatment?