Identifying Opportunities to Strengthen Service Delivery for Hypertension in Tajikistan

Executive Summary

Using implementation research to improve hypertension service delivery

As life expectancy rises in Tajikistan, the burden of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) is also increasing. The rising burden of NCDs poses considerable economic costs in terms of lost labour productivity and health care expenditure. Hypertension, or high blood pressure, an important risk factor for NCDs, has increased its contribution to the overall disease burden by 41.4% between 2007 and 2017. There is an urgent need to strengthen service delivery systems to respond to the growing burden of high blood pressure in Tajikistan, through early detection, diagnosis, maintenance of therapy, and the attainment of blood pressure control. Therefore, the Ministry of Health and Social Protection and the World Bank undertook an implementation research effort to identify solutions to challenges in service delivery for hy-pertension in Tajikistan.