Prevalence, awareness, treatment, control and risk factors for hypertension in a rural population in South India.

OBJECTIVES

Hypertension is a major public health problem with prevalence ranging 22-30% in urban India. There are few data on hypertension epidemiology in rural India. We conducted a survey to estimate prevalence, awareness, treatment, control and risk factors for hypertension in a rural population in south India.

METHODS

We did cross-sectional survey in 11 villages in Tamil Nadu. We collected data on behavioral risk factors, anthropometric and blood pressure measurements. We defined hypertension according to WHO criteria.

RESULTS

Study population included 10,463 subjects aged 25-64 years. Among them, 4,900 (46.8%) were males. Hypertension was present for 2,247 (21.4%) subjects and 1,682 (74.9%) among hypertensives were newly detected. Overall 20% were on treatment and 6.6% had blood pressure control. Age ≥35 years, BMI ≥ 23 kg/m(2) and central obesity were risk factors significantly associated with hypertension (p < 0.05). In addition, alcohol consumption, higher education level were risk factor among males and family history of hypertension was risk factor among females (p < 0.05).

CONCLUSION

Hypertension is an emerging challenge in rural India. We need health promotion programs and reorientation of primary health care to improve hypertension detection and management.