Peshawar hypertension study: epidemiologic profile of juvenile and in-service population.

A survey has been carried out in Peshawar to study the prevalence of hypertension in the juvenile and active in-service population. The subgroups of the population surveyed included 1,565 school students, 1,681 college students, 1,029 textile factory workers, 1,127 police personnel, 1,006 civil servants, 398 female teachers and 206 commandos. The active in-service persons were predominantly young: 2,469 persons were 21-45 years old and 714 persons were 46-60 years old, constituting 78% and 22% of the adults examined, respectively. Diagnosis of definite hypertension was made by the presence of abnormally high blood pressure, 165/95 mm Hg or above in adults and 160/90 mm Hg or above in the juveniles, on three different occasions, using a stand-dard mercury sphygmomanometer. Definite hypertension was present in 15 out of 1,380 students (1.1%) 5-10 years old, 32 out of 1,957 students (1.6%) 10-20 years old and no significant difference was found between male and female students. In the in-service groups definite hypertension was found in 13 out of 398 (3 .3%) female teachers, 23 out of 902 (2.5%) factory workers, 36 out of 800 (4.5%) police personnel, 48 out of 8'>5 (5.6%) civil servants and 4 out of 206 (2%.) commandos. Overall prevalence for age group 21-60 years was 5 per 1,000. In the juvenile group 2 out of 47 (5%) cases and amongst adults 2/ out of 129 (21%) cases were known hypertensives (JPMA 30-174, 1980).