Sulaiman D Ahmed
,
Oghenekaro G Egbi
For correspondence:- Sulaiman Ahmed Email: ahmeddaz@yahoo.com Tel: +234 8037104444
Published: 30 December 2020
Citation: Ahmed SD, Egbi OG. Prevalence of hypertension in a rural, agrarian community in South-South Nigeria. Trop J Med Dent Pract 2020; 1(2):65-72 doi: https://doi.org/10.47227/tjmdp/v1i2.2
© 2020 The author(s).
This is an Open Access article that uses a funding model which does not charge readers or their institutions for access and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0) and the Budapest Open Access Initiative (http://www.budapestopenaccessinitiative.org/read), which permit unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited..
Background: Of the estimated 1.13 billion of persons with hypertension, two-thirds live in low- and middle-income countries. Hypertension is a serious medical condition that remarkably increases the risks of heart, brain, kidney and other diseases. This study aimed to determine the prevalence of hypertension in an agrarian, rural, community in South-Southern Nigeria. This study aimed to determine the prevalence of hypertension in an agrarian, rural, community in South-Southern Nigeria.
Methods: This is a cross-sectional study, involving 163 participants, was carried out with a structured questionnaire in South Ibie community in Etsako West local government area of Edo State, South-Southern Nigeria. Socio-demographics, anthropometric data, blood pressure and weight measurements as well as random blood sugar (RBS) were obtained from consenting participants.
Results: 163 participants (73 males and 90 females), aged between 18 and 92 years, completed the study with a mean age of 48.22 ± 18.36 yr. The mean weight was 75.45 ± 15.53 and mean body mass index (BMI) was 28.42 ± 6.27kg/m2. Obesity was present in 35% of the population. The prevalence of hypertension was 24.5% and factors associated with condition were age >40yrs (p<0.001) and weight > 80kg (p = 0.002). None of those hypertensive had random blood sugar (RBS) levels > 140mg/dl.
Conclusion: Hypertension was highly prevalent in the study population. Age and increased body weight were the major factors associated with hypertension in this community. From the foregoing, we recommend sustained advocacy and health awareness programs targeted at timely detection and control of hypertension as well as mitigation of its associated co-morbidities.
