Abstract:
Background: Despite hypertension being a common condition among adults attending medical OPD of Community Health Centre (CHC), blood pressure (BP) control is often poor. Greater insight into socio-demographic factors that influence the control of BP will assist in the development of an intervention to address the issues identified.
Aim: The aim of the study was to determine the prevalence of hypertension and its relationship with socio-demographic variables among adults attending medical OPD of a CHC.
Method: This was an analytical cross-sectional study with 175 participants selected over a 1-month period. A self-designed questionnaire was used to collect socio-demographic data of the participants and their BP was recorded.
Results: 42.9% of the study subjects in the present study had raised blood pressure (either systolic or diastolic or both). 30% of the subjects below 30 years of age were hypertensive while among those 30 years and above 51.4% were hypertensive and the difference was statistically significant (p value 0.005). Hypertension was also seen in a significantly higher proportion of smokers than non-smokers/ex-smokers (47.7% and 29.8% respectively, p value 0.034). Also significantly higher number of known hypertensives had raised BP (73.2%) than those who did not have a history of hypertension (33.6%) (p value 0.000).
Conclusion: These findings indicate that raised BP and uncontrolled hypertension were significant health problems in the study population. Therefore, concerted efforts should be made to promote health education with emphasis on BP control.
