Determination of the link between hypertension and Covid-19

高血压（不受控制的高血压）是全球过早死亡的主要可预防原因。据估计，全球有13.9亿人患有高血压，2015年造成约1070万人死亡。据预测，到2025年，全球将有超过15亿人受到高血压的影响。在英国，约30%的成年人患有高血压，950万人被诊断患有高血压，仅在英格兰就有500万人可能患有高血压但尚未意识到。在当前的COVID-19大流行中，高血压患者在管理他们的病情方面面临着额外的挑战：\* 社交孤立，无法以相同的频率与他们的全科医生/医疗保健专业人员（HCP）会面\* 阅读新闻和科学文献中的故事，这些故事表明，高比例的高血压患者感染COVID-19后患有严重疾病，被送入重症监护室，接受机械通气，或者死亡。能够通过使用记录每日血压读数的手机应用程序远程监测高血压患者，目前的治疗方案，并指出任何COVID-19症状将解决当前的临床需求，并使医疗管理和患者参与，而不需要直接的患者-HCP联系人。我们的目标是更新已开发的专为高血压临床研究设计的手机应用程序，以包括在COVID-19背景下的新临床试验中部署的额外功能。该试验旨在展示一种“一切照旧”的方法来管理和监测长期疾病，并收集数据，以帮助回答高血压社区关注的问题，即：血压药物的使用和/或血压控制水平是否会影响COVID-19感染的风险？血压药物的使用和/或血压控制水平是否会影响COVID-19疾病/肺炎的严重程度？特定类型的血压药物会影响COVID-19感染风险吗？

Hypertension (uncontrolled high blood pressure) is the leading preventable cause of premature death worldwide. Globally, 1.39bn people are estimated to have hypertension, and it caused ~10.7 million deaths in 2015\. It is projected to affect more than 1.5 billion people around the world by 2025\.In the UK ~30% of adults have hypertension, 9.5m have a diagnosis, and a further 5m people in England alone may have hypertension yet be unaware.In the current pandemic of COVID-19, people with hypertension are facing additional challenges in managing their condition as they are:\*socially isolating and not being able to meet with their GP/Healthcare Professional (HCP) with the same frequency\*reading stories in the press and scientific literature that indicate that a high percentage of patients with hypertension who contract COVID-19 have severe illness, are admitted to an intensive care unit, receive mechanical ventilation, or die.Being able to remotely monitor people with hypertension through use of a phone app that records daily BP readings, current treatment regimens and indicate any COVID-19 symptoms will address a current clinical need and enable medical management and patient engagement without the need for direct patient-HCP contact.We aim to update an already developed phone app designed for a hypertension focussed clinical study to include additional features for deployment in a new clinical trial in a COVID-19 setting. The trial will aim to demonstrate a "business as usual" approach to managing and monitoring a long term condition as well as collecting data help to answer questions that are of concern for the hypertension community namely:\*Does blood pressure drug use and/or level of blood pressure control affect risk of COVID-19 infection?\*Does blood pressure drug use and/or level of blood pressure control affect severity of COVID-19 illness/pneumonia?\*Do particular types of blood pressure medication affect risk of COVID-19 infection?