Prevalence and covariates of adult hypertension: A community-based cross-sectional study in the rural areas of Nagpur

Abstract

Introduction: Hypertension is an iceberg disease. A few hypertensive patients are actually aware of their status and only half of them are actually treated. It is a silent killer disease and hypertensive people die prematurely. A wide disparity exists between the prevalence of hypertension in developed and developing regions. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional community-based study involving 574 adult people from the rural community in Nagpur was selected through systematic random sampling from December 2008 to April 2009. Blood pressure was measured with a sphygmomanometer properly standardized and anthropometry was performed. Data were analyzed with SPSS statistical software (version 19.0). Results: The prevalence of hypertension was 20.38%, and the prevalence was higher among males. Age and weight were significant covariates for hypertension. Conclusion: In the present study, it is revealed that as the age advances, the prevalence of hypertension also increases. This was statistically significant. Hypertension was more prevalent in males than in females.

Keywords

• Covariates
• hypertension
• prevalence
• rural