Abstract
The purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence of arterial hypertension (HT) awareness and the influence of age, sex and body mass index on the degree of control of HT in the population of Maracaibo, State of Zulia, Venezuela. It included 7424 subjects, 3640 males (M) and 3784 females (F). Information was collected through domiciliary visits with a questionnaire designed for this purpose. Hypertension was defined as such when values were ⩾140 mm Hg for systolic blood pressure (SBP) and ⩾90 mm Hg for diastolic blood pressure (DBP). In the total sample, 36.9% were hypertensive. A higher prevalence in M (45.2%) than in F (28.9%), was observed. The percentage of HT increased with age in both genders. There was a high percentage of hypertensives with obesity (73.5%) which did not vary when discriminating for gender and age. Obese subjects were more prone to have HT until age 50. Those younger than 40 took less medication but were proportionally better controlled. Of the hypertensive population 54.3% were not aware of their condition, of 45.7% remaining, 22.8% did not have regular control visits, 18.4% inspite of medication were not controlled and only 4.5% were well controlled. Better control was observed in F (6.2%) than in M (3.3%), P < 0.001. it is concluded that ht is a serious public health problem because of its high prevalence and lack of control, and it is necessary to implement educational and medical programmes for the detection and control of this disease.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 12 digital issues and online access to articles
$119.00 per year
only $9.92 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on Springer Link
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
Similar content being viewed by others
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Sulbarán, T., Silva, E., Calmón, G. et al. Epidemiologic aspects of arterial hypertension in Maracaibo, Venezuela. J Hum Hypertens 14 (Suppl 1), S6–S9 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.jhh.1000979
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.jhh.1000979
Keywords
This article is cited by
-
Guided or factual computer support for kidney patients with different experience levels and medical health situations: preferences and usage
Health and Technology (2019)
-
Prevalence, awareness, treatment and control of hypertension in a rural Nicaraguan sample
Journal of Human Hypertension (2007)