Hypertension in the elderly population of Assam.

BACKGROUND With the increase in life-expectancy and modification of lifestyle cardiovascular disease especially hypertension is emerging as a major public health problem in the elderly people of Assam. The Geriatric population needs priority in assessment of the disease burden. With this background this study was undertaken with an objective to know the dimension of the hypertension prolem in elderly people of Assam and relevant factors associated with it. METHODS Eight hundred and eighty eight elderly participants 60 years and above (males 500, females 388 from three randomly selected areas were interviewed to collect information on dietary habit and socio-demographic variables and clinically examined for blood pressure and athropometric parameters using standardized technique. Statistical analysis was performed using the Epi Info and SPSS software. RESULTS To overall age adjusted mean systolic blood pressure (SBP) was 150.52 (95% CI 148.81-152.23) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) was 88.22 (95% CI 87.39-89.05). Overall prevalence of hypertension was 63.63% (95% CI 59.8-66.2), 64.2% in males and 62.89% in females. Isolated systolic hypertension was detected in 13.2% males and 10.31% females among the hypertensives. 26.90% of the hypertensives were aware of their increase in blood pressure. Determinants of hypertension derived by multiple logistic regression analysis were age, intake of extra salt, alcohol and body mass index (BMI). CONCLUSION High prevalence with inadequate awareness and control of hypertension in the elderly group of population call for an immediate implementation of active public health programme in the state.