STUDY OF PREVALENCE OF HYPERTENSION IN RURAL POPULATION OF KERALA

BACKGROUND: Hypertension is one of the important causes of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. With change in lifestyle and increase in life expectancy in India, hypertension is emerging as an important public health problem. AIM & OBJECTIVES: To asses the prevalence of hypertension in rural population To correlate the prevalence with epidemiological factors. METHODS: A community based cross sectional survey was conducted in rural Kerala and 459 subjects were studied. Height weight and blood pressure of subjects were measured using standardized techniques. RESULTS: The overall prevalence of hypertension in our study was 19.82%. Prevalence of hypertension increased with age but did not vary with sex. The prevalence of hypertension was strongly associated with body mass index (BMI). CONCLUSIONS: This rural study showed a high prevalence of hypertension. This observation emphasises need to improve screening, treatment and control of hypertension in this population.