The prevalence, risk factors and awareness of hypertension in an urban population of Kerala (South India)

To determine the prevalence and possible risk factors for hypertension and prehy­pertensive state in Trivandrum City of Kerala (South India) using Joint National Committee (JNC) VII criteria, a team of trained fourth year medical students conducted a 10% random household survey in certain wards of the City. Households were selected using a random start and interval and all the members above the age of 10 years were interviewed using a standard questionnaire. The blood pressure (BP) was measured twice in each participant and the mean value of the two mea­surements was taken. A total of 482 individuals (212 males and 270 females) were interviewed in the survey. Overall prevalence of hypertension was 47% (n = 226) with equal sex ratio; 109 (21.6%) had stage-I hypertension, 45 (9.34%) had stage-II hypertension and 72 were taking drug treatment. Only 55 (11.4%) individuals had normal BP, while 201 (41.7%) were prehypertensives. Only 81 (16.8%) hypertensive patients were aware of their disease. Among the parameters such as dietary habits, physical activity, educational standards, salt intake, and diabetes mellitus, only high salt diet (P= 0.03) and diabetes mellitus (P= 0.004) had a significant association with hypertensive state. In con­clusion, the prevalence of hypertension is high but the awareness is low in our community, and intervention is necessary to impose control measures and to improve awareness.