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Geographical variation in prevalence of hypertension within The Gambia

Journal of Human Hypertension volume 15, pages 733–739 (2001)Cite this article

Abstract

Hypertension has become an important public health problem for sub-Sahara Africa. In a previous nationwide study, we observed a high degree of geographical variation in the prevalence of diastolic hypertension. Geographical variation provides essential background information for the development of community randomised trials could suggest aetiological mechanisms, inform control strategies and prompt further research questions. We designed a follow-up study from the nine high-prevalence communities, and from 18 communities where hypertension was found least prevalent (controls). In each community, 50 households were randomly selected. In each household, an (unrelated) man and woman were enrolled. The risk for hypertension (blood pressure ⩾160/95 mm Hg) was higher in the high prevalence communities compared to the control villages (adjusted OR = 1.7, 95% CI 1.3–2.2). The observed coefficient of variation in hypertension prevalence, k, was 0.30. Thus we confirmed significant geographical variation in prevalence of hypertension over time, which has implications for planning of interventions.

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Acknowledgements

This study was funded by the Medical Research Council UK. We are grateful for the support of the Department of State for Health, for the co-operation of the study participants, for the hard work of the team of field workers, and the support from the MRC support services. We thank Dr Robin Bailey, Dr Maarten Schim van der Loeff and Dr Georgio Sirugo for helpful comments on an earlier draft.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Medical Research Council Laboratories, Fajara, The Gambia

    MAB van der Sande, PJM Milligan, GEL Walraven, M Newport, OA Nyan, WAS Banya & KPWJ McAdam

  2. Department of General Internal Medicine, Nijmegen, The Netherlands

    WMV Dolmans & Th Thien

  3. Institute of Biological Anthropology, Oxford, UK

    R Ward

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  1. MAB van der Sande
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  2. PJM Milligan
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  3. GEL Walraven
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  4. WMV Dolmans
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  5. M Newport
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  6. OA Nyan
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  7. WAS Banya
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  8. Th Thien
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  9. R Ward
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  10. KPWJ McAdam
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Correspondence to MAB van der Sande.

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van der Sande, M., Milligan, P., Walraven, G. et al. Geographical variation in prevalence of hypertension within The Gambia. J Hum Hypertens 15, 733–739 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.jhh.1001259

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.jhh.1001259

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