Prevalence of Hypertension among HIV/AIDS Patients Attending a Tertiary Hospital in North-East Nigeria

Abstract

The HIV disease and its several antiviral agents have over the years been showing some associations with hypertension. While the HIV programme in sub sub-Saharan Africa including Nigeria, which is largely donor driven, focuses on the provision of HIV care only, the evolving trend of hypertension in this population goes unrecognised and neglected. The objective of the study was to establish the burden of hypertension in the HIV population as an evolving unrecognised comorbidity calling for attention. The variables of age, marital status and ethnicity were evaluated and appear to have some bearings with hypertension. This was a retrospective, descriptive study conducted at Modibbo Adama University Teaching Hospital, Yola, Adamawa Nigeria through a review of past medical records of HIV patients attending the infectious disease clinic during a 10-year period. The retrieved data were entered into and analysed using the IBM SPSS version 20.0 statistical software. Prevalence was expressed in percentage. Bivariate analysis was performed using the Chi-square test for association between socio demographics and hypertension status. A value of p < 0.05 was considered significant Twenty-two per cent (22.1%) of the study population were found to be hypertensive. Older age, marital status and ethnicity were found to be significantly associated with hypertension among the HIV population (p<0.001). This finding draws attention to the high burden of hypertension among people living with HIV/AIDS. Health policy makers and other stakeholders should therefore design and implement a wholistic HIV programme that incorporates care for non-communicable diseases such as hypertension. Keywords: Hypertension, HIV, prevalence.