Prevalence of Hypertension, Pre-Hypertension and Undetected hypertension in Mashhad, Iran

Hypertension (HTN) is an important risk factor for cardiovascular disease (CVD) affecting more than a quarter of the world’s adult population. The aim of this survey was to determine the prevalence of HTN, pre-HTN, and awareness of HTN in an Iranian population, and to assess the factors associated with HTRN and preHTN. The MASHAD study started in 2010 and will continue until 2020. The demographic, anthropometric and lifestyle data were collected by two certified health care professionals and a nurse. SPSS software was used for statistical analysis. There were a total of 9762 participants, of whom 40% were males (n= 3903) and 60% females (n= 5859). The means and SD age of the population samples were 48.8 ±8.4 years for the male and 47.6 ± 8.0 years for the female subgroups. Twelve percent (12%) (0.760.82) were classified as prehypertensive, 23% (0.17, 0.23) as hypertensive and 65% were normotensive. Of the group that was hypertensive, 55% were individuals with previously undetected HTN. The prevalence of undetected HTN in the sub-group with diabetes mellitus (DM) was 42%; and in those who were current smoking the prevalence of undetected HTN was 54.9%, indicating a high degree of coclustering of cardiovascular risk factors. In an unselected population from NorthEastern Iran, hypertension was common, often undetected and frequently coexisted with other CVD risk factors.