Hypertension in Type 2 Diabetes and Its Association with Glycemic Control: A Hospital-Based Study from Pakistan

Abstract

Objective: To determine the frequency of type 2 diabetic-hypertensive patients who fail to achieve target blood pressure goals despite treatment and to find the association between uncontrolled hypertension and poor glycemic control. Study Design: Descriptive, cross-sectional. Place and Duration: The study was conducted in the Department of Medicine, Pakistan Railways Hospital, Islamic International Medical College/Riphah International University, from 1st August 2022 to 31st January 2023. Methodology: A total of 200 diabetic patients were included. Study variables included age, gender, duration of diabetes/hypertension, glycemic/blood pressure control, target organ damage, compliance to treatment and life style modification, regular follow ups and awareness of target blood pressure goals. Data was recorded on a self-developed proforma. Diabetic patients with hypertension were classified into those with optimally controlled blood pressure (< 140/90 mmHg) and those with uncontrolled hypertension despite treatment (BP > 140/90 mm Hg). Results: Prevalence of hypertension in our diabetic population was 68.5%. Blood pressure was optimally controlled in 50.4%. Poor glycemic control was observed in 56.5% patients. Patients with sub-optimal glycemic control were more likely to be hypertensive (77.8%) as compared to their normoglycemic counterparts (56.3%). There was a significant correlation between uncontrolled hypertension and poor glycemic control (p-Value 0.202). Older age, female gender, duration of hypertension, lack of awareness of target BP goals and non-adherence to pharmacological and non-pharmacological measures were independent predictors for uncontrolled hypertension. Conclusion: Blood pressure is not optimally controlled in half of the diabetic hypertensive patients despite treatment. Uncontrolled hypertension correlates significantly with poor glycemic control. Keywords: Frequency; Diabetes; Blood Pressure; Goals; Association; Hypertension How to Cite This: Burney S, Asad M, Fazal M, Zulfiqar A. Hypertension in Type 2 Diabetes and Its Association with Glycemic Control: A Hospital-Based Study from Pakistan. Isra Med J. 2023; 15(1): 30-34. DOI: https://doi.org/10.55282/imj.oa1392. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.