Objective: To explore the factors affecting blood level of elderly hypertensive patients, using a multilevel analysis model.
Methods: 927 elderly hypertensive patients from 23 communities were studied, through a multi-stage random sampling method. The influencing factors on systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) were analyzed through a two-level linear multilevel model, respectively.
Results: The average blood pressure of subjects appeared as: SBP (139.2 +/- 11.7) mm Hg (1 mm Hg = 0.133 kPa), DBP (85.6 +/- 8.6) mm Hg. Ratio of physician versus patients was the factor affecting blood level of subjects from the community level. SBP and DBP of the subjects from the higher physician/patient ratio communities were 3.86 mm Hg and 2.51 mm Hg, lower than the subjects in the lower ratio communities, after controlling the other related factors. Age, gender, overweight/obesity were the individual risk factors of hypertension, while factors as regularly medicine taking, reducing salt intake and related self-efficacy to manage disease could reduce the blood pressure. Reducing salt intake could lower the SBP for 2.44 mm Hg and DBP for 2.03 mm Hg, after controlling the other factors.
Conclusion: Multilevel analysis model could effectively analyze the hierarchically structured data while both factors from the community and individual levels could affect the blood level among elderly patients with hypertension.