Prevalence of hypertension and determinants of treatment-seeking behaviour among adolescents and young adults in India: an analysis of NFHS-4.

Abstract

Previous evidences have reported that almost three-fourth of young hypertensives are not seeking care for their condition leading to severe complications. This study was conducted to assess the determinants of treatment-seeking behaviour among the young hypertensives in India. The National Family Health Survey-4 data were analysed. Sampling weights and clustering was accounted using svyset command. Screening, awareness, prevalence and control status were reported with 95% confidence interval (CI). Poisson regression was done to identify the determinants of treatment-seeking behaviour. In total, 13.8% of younger adults had hypertension, 51.1% were aware of their status and 19.5% sought treatment. Participants in 15-19years (adjusted Prevalence Ratio (aPR)=0.70) and 20-29years (aPR=0.63), male gender (aPR=0.84), Muslim religion (aPR=1.14), urban region (aPR=0.87), secondary (aPR=0.88) and higher education (aPR=0.86), residing in Northern (aPR=0.79), Central (aPR=0.76), Southern region (aPR=0.65), preferring home treatment, medical shop or any other care (aPR=0.63) were significant determinants of treatment-seeking behaviour. More than 1 in 10 younger adults in India have hypertension and only half of them were aware of their status and one-fifth sought treatment. Adolescents, males, Hindus, urban population, higher education and residing in Northern, Central and Southern region had poor treatment-seeking behaviour.