The number of people with high blood pressure is increasing at a rapid pace, and community intervention is vital to prevent the disease from posing a heavy burden on China's public health and economy, experts said on Sunday, World Health Day.

Li Bin, minister in charge of the National Health and Family Planning Commission, chats with residents on Sunday at Zhanlanlu Community Health Center in Beijing, where an activity was organized to prevent high blood pressure. Wang Jing / China Daily

"It's estimated based on previous surveys that 24 percent of Chinese people over age 15 have high blood pressure," said Wang Wen, vice-chairman of the Chinese Hypertension League. "This means there are about 260 million such patients in the country."

"The cost to treat cardiovascular disease is increasing much faster than the pace of China's GDP. High blood pressure is a major cause of the ongoing increase of such diseases. It has helped develop two-thirds of the cardiovascular conditions," said Hu Shengshou, director of the National Center for Cardiovascular Disease.

China conducted three national surveys on blood pressure - in 1959, 1979 and 1991 - and found the prevalence of the disease among people older than 15 rose from about 5 percent to 11 percent.