The Burden of Hypertension and Prehypertension in a Community Health Centre of Haryana.

Abstract

Background Hypertension (HTN) is endemic in India and it is considered a public health challenge in both economically developed and developing nations.Unfortunately,despite its high prevalence, its awareness, treatment,and control status arelow in urban as well as rural Indian populations. Objectives To determine the burden of hypertension and prehypertensionin a Community Health Center (CHC)and to find the associationof hypertensionwith the agegroupand sexofstudy subjects. Methodology A cross-sectional study was carried out among 713 patients of age 20 years and above attendingtheOut Patient Department (OPD)of the Community Health Centre (CHC),Barwalain the Hisardistrict of Haryana.JNC 7 classification of blood pressure was usedto diagnose hypertension.The collected data was analysed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20.0. Appropriate statistical tests were used. Result Out ofthetotal patientsenrolled, 200(28.1%)were found to be hypertensives. The burden of prehypertension was further observed to be 28.1%. About (61.6%) of OPD patients were female. Among hypertensive patients, nearly half(48.8%) were in the age group of 60-80 years whereas the majority of the hypertensives(56%) werefemales. Conclusion In our study,more than 50 percentof OPD patients were found to have hypertension and pre-hypertension. Health-seekingbehaviorwas more among females.