Hypertension among Current Cigarette Smokers Visiting Outpatient Department of a Tertiary Care Centre: A Descriptive Cross-sectional Study.

Introduction: Hypertension is a common physical condition with high blood pressure for a prolonged period. Long risk factors like age, overweight, high dietary salt intake, smoking, sedentary lifestyle, and term hypertension might lead to various cardiovascular diseases. The normal blood pressure, systolic, is 90-119 mm Hg and diastolic 60-79 mm Hg. The objective of this study is to find out the prevalence of hypertension among current cigarette smokers patients in an outpatient department of a tertiary care centre.

Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was done on 385 outpatient department patients in a tertiary care centre from September, 2021 to February, 2022. The sample was collected by a convenience after approval from the Institutional Review Committee (Reference number: 0505202105). Outpatient department patients who had past history of smoking cigarette>100 cigarettes and who is still smoking were included in the study. Data were analysed by using the Statistical Package for the Social Science software version 16.0. Point estimate at 95% Confidence Interval was calculated along with frequency and percentage for binary data and mean and standard deviation for continuous data.

Results: Among 385 patients, 209 (54.28%) (47.64-60.92 at 95% Confidence Interval) were hypertensive patients. One hundred fifty-six (40.51%) males and 53 (13.76%) females were hypertensive.

Conclusions: The prevalence of hypertension was higher when compared to other studies done in similar settings.

Keywords: habits; hypertension; prevalence; smokers.