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Urban rural differences in prevalence and risk factors of self-reported hypertension among Kenyan women: a population-based study

Journal of Human Hypertension volume 35, pages 912–920 (2021)Cite this article

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Abstract

This study investigated rural–urban variation in the prevalence of self-reported hypertension and its risk factors among reproductive-age women in Kenya. The 2014 nationally representative Kenya Demographic and Health Survey (KDHS) data were used in this analysis. The survey adopted a multistage, geographically clustered, and probability-based sampling approach. Multivariable logistic regression was performed to assess the association between risk factors and self-reported hypertension. Overall, 9.38% of the women were hypertensive with higher prevalence among urban 11.61%, compared to rural women, 7.86%. Older age, obesity, having diabetes, and increased the odds of hypertension in both rural and urban areas. We also observed that the odds of hypertension differed by ethnic group. High wealth status was a significant correlate only among urban women with women from rich and richest wealth groups had 2–2.3 times higher odds of hypertension compared to the poor and poorest wealth groups. Women with diabetes had 22 times higher odds of hypertension in both in rural and urban areas compared to women without diabetes. In conclusion, our study found that an estimated 1 out of 10 Kenyan women have hypertension. We believe that this study contributes to better understanding of regional variation of hypertension prevalence and risk factors for reproductive women in Kenya. Future studies should seek to develop evidence-based hypertension prevention and management interventions that are targeted and tailored for urban and rural women in Kenya.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank MEASURE DHS for allowing us to use the data set. We are also thankful to the editor and reviewers for their valuable comments and suggestion, which led to significant improvements of the paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Emergency Medicine, College of Medicine, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, 32608, USA

    Muhammad Abdul Baker Chowdhury

  2. Department of Biostatistics and Data Science, School of Public Health, The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Houston, TX, 77030, USA

    Katrina Epnere

  3. Department of Population Sciences, University of Dhaka, Dhaka, 1000, Bangladesh

    Md Aminul Haque

  4. Department of Health Outcomes & Biomedical Informatics, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, 32608, USA

    Rahma S. Mkuu

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  1. Muhammad Abdul Baker Chowdhury
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Correspondence to Muhammad Abdul Baker Chowdhury.

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Chowdhury, M.A.B., Epnere, K., Haque, M.A. et al. Urban rural differences in prevalence and risk factors of self-reported hypertension among Kenyan women: a population-based study. J Hum Hypertens 35, 912–920 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41371-020-00435-x

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