Screening of Risk Factors of Hypertension among Urban and Rural Populations of District-Hapur

Abstract

Introduction:Hypertension is an important worldwide public-health challenge because of its high frequency and concomitant risks of cardiovascular and kidney disease.Hypertension is the new era pandemic which is the leading cause of mortality in the world and is ranked third as a cause of disability-adjusted life years. Various risk factors are implicated in the development of hypertension and there are differences in these risk factors in urban and rural populations depending on the level of development and epidemiological transition. Aims & Objective:The preesent study was undertaken to estimate the prevalence of hypertension and identify & compare some socio-demographic and lifestyle risk factors associated with hypertension in urban and rural populations of Hapur. Materials and methods: It’s a community based cross-sectional study in which 300 adults each were randomly selected from urban and rural populations of Hapur using modified cluster sampling method. Selected individuals were examined and interviewed using a structured, pre-tested questionnaire. Two Blood Pressure readings were recorded using mercury sphygmomanometer in the sitting position and the mean of two was considered for analysis. Data entry and analysis was done using SPSS for windows version 8.1. Result:Most of the study population belonged to age group of 20–29 yrs (27.5%) followed by 30–39 yrs (24.5%). 41.2% of the study population was constituted by males and the rest 58.8% by females. Majority of the study population belonged to middle class (58%) followed by upper lower class (18%). The prevalence of hypertension was 21% in the present study, which is comparable to the estimates given by World Health Organization (23%). Around 33.7% of the population had blood pressure in the normal range and 45.3% of the population had pre-hypertension. The prevalence of hypertension was 23.7% in the urban areas and 18.3% in the rural areas. This difference was found to be statistically insignificant. Conclusion: The present study identified as risk factors for the development of hypertension – increasing age, sedentary occupation, higher socio-economic status, extra salt intake, family history of hypertension, reduced physical activity, tobacco smoking, smokeless tobacco consumption, alcohol consumption, BMI ≥ 25 and high waist-hip ratio.