Abstract
BackgroundHigh blood pressure (HBP) is an increasing public health issue for developing countries. HBP is an important contributing factor to many non-communicable diseases that were until very recently thought to be rare in developing countries. There is not enough evidence on its burden and risk factors in Africa. We report in this study on the prevalence and factors associated with HBP in the adult and active population of Burkina Faso from a nationally representative sample.MethodsWe conducted a secondary analysis of data from the World Health Organization (WHO) Stepwise approach to Surveillance(STEPS) survey on the prevalence of major risk factors for non-communicable diseases in Burkina Faso. This survey was conducted between September 26 and November 18, 2013 and involved a nationally representative sample of 4,800 adults aged 25 to 64 years. The risk factors were identified using a binary logistic regression in STATA Version 13.1 software.ResultsThe analysis was conducted on a sample of 4629 participants of whom 72.18% lived in rural areas. The overall prevalence of hypertension in Burkina Faso was 18% (95% CI: 16.19%–19.96%). In urban areas the prevalence was 24.81% (95% CI 20.21%–30.07%) and 15.37% (95% CI 13.67%–17.24%) in rural areas. Increased Body Mass Index (BMI) and older age were consistently associated with higher odds of HBP in both residential areas. In addition, being of male sex, fat intake, family history of HBP and low level of HDL cholesterol were significantly associated with increased odds of HBP in rural residents.ConclusionThe prevalence of hypertension is high in Burkina Faso with roughly one person in five affected. There is a predominant burden in urban areas with prevalence of ten-point percent higher compared to rural area. Modifiable risk factors should be targeted with appropriate and effective strategies to curb the rising burden of hypertension and its consequences.
Highlights
High blood pressure (HBP) is an increasing public health issue for developing countries
* Correspondence: millogorod@gmail.com; http://www.iasp-bf.org 2Institut Africain de Santé publique (IASP) & Institut de recherche en sciences de la santé (IRSS), 03 Blood pressure (BP) 7102 Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso 4Institut Africain de Santé publique (IASP), USTA, Saaba, Bâtiment C, 12 BP 199 Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso Full list of author information is available at the end of the article In Africa, the prevalence of hypertension varies from one country to another and across residential areas [4]
Our research revealed that age and family history were associated with hypertension in urban and rural areas
Summary
High blood pressure (HBP) is an increasing public health issue for developing countries. We report in this study on the prevalence and factors associated with HBP in the adult and active population of Burkina Faso from a nationally representative sample. High blood pressure (HBP) is a major global public health issue according to WHO [1, 2] and its prevalence varies importantly across settings [3]. In Africa, the prevalence of hypertension varies from one country to another and across residential areas [4]. A prevalence of 16.9% in the adult population aged 15 and over was reported in Ethiopia [5] against 36.7% in Ghana [6]. There are important setting’ specificities in their importance [4, 7, 9, 11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26]
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
