Prevalence and associated factors of hypertension: a crossectional community based study in northwest ethiopia

Solomon Mekonnen Abebe; Yemane Berhane; Alemayehu Worku; Assefa Getachew

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0125210

Prevalence and associated factors of hypertension: a crossectional community based study in northwest ethiopia

PLoS One. 2015 Apr 24;10(4):e0125210. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0125210. eCollection 2015.

Authors

Solomon Mekonnen Abebe¹, Yemane Berhane², Alemayehu Worku³, Assefa Getachew⁴

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Public health, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Gondar, Gondar, Ethiopia.
² Addis Continental Institute of Public Health, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
³ School of Public Health, Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
⁴ School of Medicine, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Gondar, Gondar, Ethiopia.

Abstract

Background: Hypertension, being the root cause of many of the body sytem and organs failure, remains to be a major public health challenge globally. Though the problem is huge in both developed and developing countries, data are scarce in developing countries like Ethiopia. Therefore, this study was aimed to determine the magnitude and associated factors of hypertension in North West Ethiopia.

Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted on adults aged 35 years and above in the rural and urban communities of Dabat district and Gondar town in 2012. The data were collected using the WHO STEPwise strategy. Hypertension was defined as having a Systolic blood pressure of ≥140 mmHg and/ or a Diastolic BP of ≥ 90mmHg or a reported use of anti-hypertensive medications for raised blood pressure. Prevalence was computed with a 95% confidence interval. Selected risk factors were assessed using a biviarete logistic regression.

Results: A total of 2200 participants were included in the study. The median age (±SD) was 47 (±12.4) years. The overall prevalence of hypertension was found to be 27.9% [95% CI 26.0, 29.8], with the proportion in the urban and rural residents being 30.7% and 25.3% respectively. The prevalence of hypertension was 29.3% for women and 26.3% for men. Out of the 598 hypertensive patients 241 (40.3%) had blood pressure measurements, and 99 (16.6%) had known hypertension and were on treatment. The proportion of systolic and diastolic hypertension in this subgroup of adults was 133(6.2%). The multivariable logistic regression analysis showed older age (AOR = 1.06; 1.05, 1.07), raised fasting glucose (AOR = 1.01; 1.001, 1.01), alcohol consumption (AOR = 1.71; 1.24, 2.36), and raised BMI (AOR =1.07; 1.04, 1.10) were significantly associated with hypertension.

Conclusion: The prevalence of hypertension was considerably higher in rural areas than previously reported. The health system needs to develop strategies to increase the reach of relevant screening and diagnostic services to both rural and urban populations.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Adult
Aged
Antihypertensive Agents / therapeutic use
Blood Pressure / physiology
Cross-Sectional Studies
Ethiopia / epidemiology
Female
Humans
Hypertension / drug therapy
Hypertension / epidemiology*
Hypertension / etiology*
Hypertension / physiopathology
Logistic Models
Male
Middle Aged
Prevalence
Residence Characteristics
Risk Factors
Rural Population
Socioeconomic Factors
Urban Population

Substances

Antihypertensive Agents

Grants and funding

Partial funding for this study was received from the World Health Organization and the Addis Continental Institute of Public Health. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.