Prevalence of undiagnosed hypertension among a cohort of university workers in Nigeria

Abstract

Background: Hypertension is regarded as a silent killer especially because it may remain undiagnosed. This study examined the prevalence of undiagnosed hypertension among staff of a University in Nigeria. Methods: A cross-sectional survey of junior and senior staff of a University in Northern Nigeria was conducted. Demographic, blood pressure, and body mass index (BMI) data were obtained using appropriate instruments. Prevalence of undiagnosed hypertension was presented as percentages while Chi-square statistic was used to assess differences in the prevalence among participants in the senior and junior cadres globally, and by gender and BMI at a significance level of α = 0.05. Results: There were 441 participants comprising 258 (58.5%) senior and 183 (41.5%) junior staff while mean age of participants was 40±8.5 years. Prevalence of undiagnosed hypertension was 36.1%. Differences in the prevalence were statistically significant only between obese male senior and junior staff, and obese female senior and junior staff, with higher proportions of senior staff having undiagnosed hypertension in both cases. Conclusions: Approximately one-third of the participants had undiagnosed hypertension with a higher prevalence among obese male and female senior staff. Institution-based hypertension prevention and awareness strategies including routine blood pressure and risk factor screening are advocated.