Abstract
<jats:p>Hypertension is a leading cause of premature mortality globally. Armenia, a country located in the South Caucasus, has one of the highest rates of hypertension in the world, with an estimated prevalence of 51% among adults aged 30-79. A previous analysis of ambulance calls from 2016-2022 revealed that high blood pressure was the most common ambulance complaint in Armenia. In the present study, we analyzed a de-identified database of all ambulance calls logged on the Locator™ software in Armenia from January 1, 2016 to July 31, 2022. Among all adults who reported at least one chief complaint, 28.8% listed high blood pressure as their sole complaint. Within this cohort, 61.0% of patients were over 60 years old, and 70.1% of patients were women. The rate of transfer to the hospital was 9.2%. Call volume fluctuated by season, with higher frequencies in the winter and spring and lower frequencies in the summer and fall. Results indicate that a significant proportion of ambulance calls are for non-emergency cases of high blood pressure with no additional reported medical complaints, indicating that Armenia’s elevated prevalence of hypertension places a significant burden on its ambulance system. Policymakers should prioritize hypertension as a national issue, and consider multi-modal policy interventions aimed at reducing ambulance utilization for high blood pressure.</jats:p>