Assessment of Risk Factors For Hypertention in A Rural Community in South-South Nigeria

Background: Hypertension is an important and often symptomless chronic condition yet implicated as an important cause of various cardiovascular complications; stroke, renal failure, blindness thereby reducing the quality of life and productivity of untreated hypertensives’. Risk factors for hypertension as revealed in literatures include the following- Age, Gender, family history of hypertension, race, high intake of alcohol, physical inactivity, smoking, obesity, high intake of saturated fat, diabetes mellitus etc. Objectives of the study: To assess the prevalence, risk factors for hypertension amongst rural dweller in Etsako West LGA of Edo State. Additionally, the study sought to determine the relationship between basal metabolic index (BMI ) and hypertension. Methods: The descriptive cross sectional study was carried out using pre-tested self-administered questionnaires; it was distributed among 350 respondents who were recruited via multistage sampling technique. The blood pressure was measured in the sitting position using the left arm held at the level of the heart. Blood pressure (BP) was measured to the nearest 2 mmHg on two occasions at an interval of 5 minute. The target populations were rural dwellers in South Ibia, Etsako West LGA of Edo State in South –south Nigeria. Variables were entered and analyzed was using SPSS software package. The association between various variables (risk factors, hypertention ) were tested using appropriate test of statistics. Results: Majority of the participants were within the age range of 18-27. Out of the 350 respondents 171 and 179 were male and female respectively. The prevalence of hypertension was 31.4% among the study participants. Majority of the respondents had normal body mass index (58.7%), this was followed by pre-obese (18.7%), obese (12.8%) and underweight (9.9%). Conclusion: Early and prompt diagnosis of hypertension is key to prevention and control of its complications. This study emphasized the need to reduce weight through continuous exercise. Also, increased awareness of risk factors among rural dwellers will go a long way in reducing the burden of hypertension and its associated effects.