Characterization of the hypertensive population in a community of Brazil

Background: identifying the hypertensive population and the associated risk factors, by means of an active research, in a specific community is the basis for an adequate treatment, making emphasis on the actions that may modify unhealthy lifestyles. Objective: to characterize the hypertensive patients older than 15 years of age, attended to at the Arthur Bartolomeu Fiorini medical station, municipality of Pinhalzinho-SC, Brazil, from February to December, 2015.Methods: a cross-sectional, descriptive, observational study was carried out in the community of the aforementioned medical station and during the period herein declared. The research was made up of two periods. In the first one there was a medical work with the supposedly healthy population, without a previous diagnosis of hypertension, which included 1311 people older than 15 years of age who were subjects of classification. In the second period the work was aimed at the patients diagnosed with hypertension who were added to the 132 patients who had a diagnosis prior to this study. The following variables were measured: age, sex, chronic diseases and associated risk factors, recorded in the electronic guide. The data were processed according to descriptive statistics.Results: 178 new cases were diagnosed, resulting in 310 the hypertensive population older than 15 years of age. There was a higher incidence in the female sex (66,4 %). There was a prevalence of bad eating habits (98,7 %) and sedentary lifestyle (88,7 %) as associated risk factors, mostly present in patients of 60 years of age and older (39,1 %). Dyslipidemia (50,3 %), followed by obesity (34,5 %), were the most frequent diseases associated with systemic arterial hypertension.Conclusions: the study recorded and classified the hypertensive patients older than 15 years of age of the community, characterizing the risk factors and the associated diseases.