Publication:

Prevalence, awareness, treatment and control of hypertension among adults of Raipur city, Chhattisgarh, India: a cross sectional study

Background Hypertension is prevalent all over the world. Usually it is readily detectable, easily treatable condition and if left untreated may leads to serious complications. In considerable proportion of cases the disease tends to be asymptomatic for prolonged time, hence also labelled as ‘Silent killer’. High blood pressure (BP) is a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease and better control can lead to prevention of 300,000 of the 1.5 million annual deaths from cardiovascular diseases in India. The objective of the study was to find the prevalence, awareness, treatment and control status of hypertension among adults of Raipur city.

Methods A community based cross sectional study was carried out in 768 subjects of age 25-59 years residing in Raipur city, Chhattisgarh, India. A predesigned, pretested questionnaire was used for data collection. To classify blood pressure JNC VII criteria was used.

Results The prevalence of hypertension was 29.0 %. Out of 223 hypertensive (223/768), 59.2% were aware about their hypertensive status, in them 76.9% were on treatment and 49.5% were under control.

Conclusions There was striking lack of awareness of the condition and a suboptimal rate of control among those treated. These finding emphasize public health importance of hypertension in Raipur city and there is urgent need to address this through targeted intervention.