Introduction:
Hypertension may cause target organ damage leading to hyper­tensive heart disease (HHD). The burden caused by HHD in Poland has not been studied systematically. The purpose of this study was to describe the burden of HHD in Poland in terms of prevalence, mortality, disabilityadjusted life years lost (DALY) and key risk factors.

Material and methods:
Data were obtained from the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries and Risk Factors (GBD) Study database. The GBD uses a wide range of data sources and complex statistical methods to estimate disease burden for all countries by age, sex, and year. HHD was defined by ICD-9 codes 402-402.91 and ICD-10 codes I11-I11.9. From the GBD 2016 estimates, we extracted data for Poland between 1990 and 2016.

Results:
Hypertensive heart disease is the fourth most important cause of cardio- and cerebrovascular death, after ischemic heart disease, stroke and cardiomyopathy. In 2016, there were about 180 000 people diagnosed with HHD in Poland and close to 5000 HHD-related deaths. HHD prevalence increased from 0.29% in 1990 to 0.47% in 2016 and was higher in women, while mortality increased from 11.2 to 12.7 per 100 000, largely due to population aging. Age-standardized death and DALY rates declined between 1990 and 2016 and were lower than in Central Europe but higher than in Western Europe.

Conclusions:
Our data suggest a need for national initiatives to improve the diagnosis and treatment of hypertension, slow the progression of HHD, and reduce the related risks and premature deaths.