The Prevalence rate of Hypertension in Rural Population of Bangladesh

Abstract

Background: The non-communicable diseases like hypertension, diabetes and asthma are emerging as a major health problem in Bangladesh. Recently, these are given high research priority by the Government of Bangladesh. The prevalence of hypertension is increasing rapidly, but there is no current study on prevalence of hypertension in rural population of Bangladesh.

There are some studies conducted on prevalence of hypertension from mid 70's to late 90's. Those studies showed the prevalence of hypertension is increasing significantly in both urban and rural population. In rural population the prevalence of hypertension was in 23.6% 1. After that there is no population based study was conducted on prevalence of hypertension in rural population of Bangladesh.

Methods: We measured blood pressure, body weight and height of 532 individuals at and above the age of 20 years (age range 20-70 years) of both sexes accept pregnant and those who were under medication of hypertension. We collected information about smoking, family history of hypertension, status of physical activity, diabetes, annual income etc.

Result: The overall prevalence rate of hypertension was 30.64% (male 31.53% and female 29.36%). In the study, the blood pressure was measured in all study subjects. The mean blood pressure was higher in hypertensive participants than that of non hypertensive. The prevalence of hypertension (30.64%) observed in this study was higher than the previous study. In this study showed that with the increasing age more the prevalence of hypertension. The similar funding also observed in recent Indian study. Our study showed that the hypertension prevalence was high among people with high BMI and obesity, positive family history, smoking and less physical activity.

Conclusion: The prevalence of hypertension in the rural population was found to be on the increased compare to previous reports of Bangladesh and other Asian studies. Advanced age, obesity, higher incomes, family history of hypertension, smoking and reduced physical activity were proved significant risk factors for hypertension, whereas, sex, occupation, showed no association with hypertension.

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/jdnmch.v18i1.12225

J. Dhaka National Med. Coll. Hos. 2012; 18 (01): 12-17