Abstract
Background: Hypertension is considered an important challenge in public health due to its high risk of cardiovascular disease, kidney disease and death. Despite interventions aimed at reducing the prevalence of hypertension, it still remains the leading cause of stoke and other related diseases and it accounts for 12.8% of all deaths worldwide. The goal of this paper is to explore factors that influences hypertension among men in Ghana. Knowledge of these factors will help public health practitioners provide targeted interventions which will result in a significant reduction of hypertension among the population.Methods: Data source is a survey aimed at collecting data on the indicators of the millennium development goals. Hypertension was the main outcome. Socioeconomic status (primary exposure variable) as well as other potential determinants were assessed. Analytic techniques included multiple Poisson regression that assessed the effects of potential covariates on hypertension in a hierarchical manner. Crude and adjusted prevalent rate ratios are reported with their corresponding 95% confidence intervals at 5% level of significance.Results: The overall prevalence rate of hypertension among Ghanaian men is 8%. Age was found to be a significant predictor of hypertension. Wealth index is also a significant predictor of hypertension with men in levels 4 and 5 more likely to develop hypertension compared to those belonging to level one after adjusting for other covariates. Men with secondary education were 23% more likely to develop hypertension compared to those with higher education, however those with no formal education were 32% less likely to develop hypertension compared to those with higher education after adjusting for other covariates. After adjusting for other covariates, professionals/technical/managerial workers were 35% more likely to be hypertensive compared to those engaged in farming. Men who visited some health facility within the last six months preceding the study were more likely to be hypertensive against those who did not visit any health facility within the same period. Hypertension is more prevalent among parents who lost two or more children compared to parents who were not bereaved. After adjusting for confounders, men with two or more lifetime partners were 13% more likely to be hypertensive as against those with only one lifetime partners.Conclusion: The rate of hypertension in Ghana is high. Factors such as age, wealth index, occupation, bereavement and number of lifetime partners are significant predictors of hypertension after adjusting for potential covariates.
Highlights
Hypertension is considered an important challenge in public health due to its high risk of cardiovascular disease, kidney disease and death [1,2]
Majority of them have one lifetime partner (91.59%) and less than a quarter of sampled men are registered with the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS)
Wealth index is a significant predictor of hypertension with men in levels 4 and 5 more likely to develop hypertension compared to those belonging to level one after adjusting for other covariates
Summary
Hypertension is considered an important challenge in public health due to its high risk of cardiovascular disease, kidney disease and death [1,2]. Despite interventions aimed at reducing the prevalence of hypertension, it still remains the leading cause of stroke and other related diseases and it accounts for 12.8% of all deaths worldwide [3]. It has been ranked as the third cause of disabilityadjusted life years [4]. In Sub-Saharan Africa, most government spend their limited resources in combating communicable diseases such as malaria and tuberculosis This result in increasing burden of non-communicable diseases such as hypertension because very few people will get treated and high morbidity and mortality from preventable consequences such as stroke and myocardial infarction. Hypertension in this region of the continent is considered to be a problem of the urban areas due to their lifestyles
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.
