Prevalence of Hypertension Stages and the Main Risk Factors in Khartoum Locality, Sudan, 2014

Background Information: Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are number one killer in the world among non-communicable diseases (NCDs). The principal underlying risk factor for CVDs is hypertension (HTN).

Objectives: To identify the prevalence of hypertension, the stages of HTN and the related risk factors such as age, sex, smoking and body mass index (BMI) among the population in Khartoum locality, Sudan, 2014

Methods: A community based cross-sectional study was carried out in Khartoum locality during March- April 2014. A total of 948 adult individual were interviewed using structured questionnaire that was filled by medical officers, house officers and semi-final medical students. Blood pressure (BP) was measured twice with 5-6 minutes in-between. Hypertension was considered as ≥ 140 mmHg and ≥ 90 mmHg for systole and diastole BP respectively. The international classification of BMI was used for underweight, normal, overweight and obesity.

Analysis: Prevalence of HTN and the stages was measured by descriptive statistics. Multiple logistic regressions was used to test relationships of age, sex, smoking and BMI with stages of hypertension, pre-HTN, stage one HTN, stage two HTN, isolated systolic hypertension (ISHTN) and isolated diastolic hypertension (IDHTN).

Results: More than half of the population (51.3%) was in the age group 18-36 years. Males and females account to 44.7% and 55.3% respectively. Overweight and obesity was detected in 59.1% of the study population. Most of the study populations were non-smokers (88.8%). Pre-HTN, HTN (stage one and two), ISHTN and IDHTN were 7.7%, 10.7%, 9.4% and 7.9 respectively.

Smoking contributed to occurrence of pre-HTN by 5.7%. It has no contribution to other stages of HTN. Male sex is the contributing factor for occurrence of pre-HTN, stage one HTN and stage two HTN, Odd Ratios: 4.555, 8.355 and 6.588 respectively. Overweight contributes to all stages of HTN by various degrees. Age is also a contributory factor for stage one HTN, stage two HTN and ISHTN.

Conclusion: Prevalence of different stages of HTN in Khartoum locality was high. Overweight contributes to all stages of HTN. Age and male sex were not contributing to pre-HTN and ISHTN respectively.