Socioeconomic, Demographics And Health Characteristics Of Adults And Elderly With Self-Reported Hypertension, Under Treatment Of Antihypertensive Therapy: A Population Based Study

Objective: To describe the socioeconomic, demographics and health characteristics of adults and elderly people who declared a diagnosis of hypertension, with a medical indication to treat that and was in use of antihypertensive drugs at the time of the interview. Design and method: Secondary data analysis from the National Survey on Access Use and Promotion of Rational Use of Medicines (PNAUM 2014), the nationwide cross-sectional population-based study, focused on the use of medicines in Brazil with a total of 41,433 interviews. The sample of this study consists of people who self-reported diagnosis of high blood pressure, medical indication to antihypertensive therapy and was in use of those medicines at the time of the interview. The Statistical Analysis System (SAS) version 9.4 was used. Results: The sample included 8,177 people with 20 years or more who reported a diagnosis of hypertension, medical indication for treatment with antihypertensive drugs, and were using them at the time of the interview. The use of antihypertensive drugs was distributed in a higher percentage among females, representing 64.4% of the sample, increased simultaneously with increasing age, ranging from 7.9% among individuals aged 20–39 years, to 50.4% among the elderly. Among the Brazilian regions, the use ranged from 4.4% in the North to 53.3% in the Southeast. Considering race/skin color the use of antihypertensives was 48.6% in Whites and 50.3% in Blacks. Individuals who reported being Indigenous and Yellow (Other), represented only 1.2%. People who claimed to have between 1 and 8 years of study and those in economic class C had higher percentages: 43.1% and 55.4% respectively. Describing variables of health conditions, 42% of respondents were overweight, 63.1% were non-smokers and 83% reported never consuming alcohol. Half of the sample reported having two or more chronic disease in addition to hypertension. Furthermore, 27.7% of respondents said they had hypercholesterolemia, 22.7% diabetes and 17.1% another chronic disease. Conclusions: The use of antihypertensive drugs occur mostly in Brazil among females, elderly, with 1 to 8 year of study, economic class level C, overweight, with two or more chronic disease in addition to hypertension.