Prevalence and covariates of adult hypertension: A community-based cross-sectional study in the rural areas of Nagpur

Introduction: Hypertension is an iceberg disease. A few hypertensive patients are actually aware of their status and only half of them are actually treated. It is a silent killer disease and hypertensive people die prematurely. A wide disparity exists between the prevalence of hypertension in developed and developing regions. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional community-based study involving 574 adult people from the rural community in Nagpur was selected through systematic random sampling from December 2008 to April 2009. Blood pressure was measured with a sphygmomanometer properly standardized and anthropometry was performed. Data were analyzed with SPSS statistical software (version 19.0). Results: The prevalence of hypertension was 20.38%, and the prevalence was higher among males. Age and weight were significant covariates for hypertension. Conclusion: In the present study, it is revealed that as the age advances, the prevalence of hypertension also increases. This was statistically significant. Hypertension was more prevalent in males than in females