Publication:

Hypertension prevalence and associated risk factors in elderly people of Northern India

Background Of the estimated 57 million global deaths in 2008, 36 million (63%) were due to non-communicable diseases (NCDs). In terms of attributable deaths, the leading behavioural and physiological risk factors globally are raised blood pressure (to which 13% of global deaths are attributed), followed by tobacco use (9%), raised blood glucose (6%), physical inactivity (6%) and being overweight or obese (5%). With this background the current study was planned to compare the prevalence and modifiable risk factors of hypertension amongst the rural and urban geriatric population.

Methods The present cross-sectional study included 535 persons aged 60 years or more, belonging to the families residing in the field practice areas of Shri Ram Murti Smarak Institute of Medical Sciences, Bareilly. House to house visits were made for face-to-face interview.

Results The mean age of elderly was 66.76±5.92 years. The proportion of elderly who were apparently healthy was 10.1%. The most frequent morbidity found was hypertension (40%) followed in order by obesity (30.67%), arthritis (26.86%), diabetes (25.72%), gastroesophageal reflux disease (19.43%), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (14.1%) and irritable bowel syndrome (3.62%). Hypertension was found to be positively associated with increasing age, not being with the spouse (separated, not married or widowed), being businessman, daily consumption of oil and salt, duration of use of tobacco, better socio-economic status, sedentary occupational physical activity and not getting support from the family.

Conclusions Prevalence of hypertension is higher in urban area. Hypertension is associated with age, marital separation, fat and salt consumption, tobacco and sedentary occupation.