Psychosocial Risk Factors Associated with Hypertension in Females of 18 – 49 Years in a Community of Faisalabad

Abstract

Objective: The objective of the study was to deter-mine the psychosocial risk factors associated with hypertension in females of 18 - 49 years in a commu-nity of Faisalabad in Punjab. Study Design: Population based case control study. Place and Duration of the Study: The study was conducted in population of 10,240 females aged 18 - 49 living in union council 227 Faisalabad from Sep-tember 2010 to March 2011. Methodology: The simple random sampling was done to identify the union councils and then study sub-jects. The cases and controls were selected among the females according to the sample size and sample sele-ction criteria. Results: The frequency distribution and calculation of statistics showed the mean age 33.5 years, standard deviation 6.517, standard error = 0.461. In bivariate analysis the psychosocial factor that were found more significantly associated with hypertension were poor family bondage (OR 1.96, 95% CI 1.01 - 3.8) and joint family system (OR 0.483, 95% CI 0.248 - 0.942). It was observed that after controlling for all the factors studied the statistically significant association was exhibited by poor family bondage (OR = 8.846, 95% CI 1.865 - 41.944) and lack of physical exercise (OR 2.283, 95% CI 1.82 - 2.94). Conclusion: The hypertension in females aged 18 - 49 years in an urban community of Faisalabad was associated with poor social bondage and lack of phy-sical exercise. Thus awareness programs should be initiated to decrease the risk factors. Key Words: Hypertension, psychosocial, dietary factors.