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The burden of hypertension in Ecuador: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Journal of Human Hypertension volume 35, pages 389–397 (2021)Cite this article

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Abstract

Hypertension is a major risk factor of cardiovascular diseases, which occurrence has increased consistently worldwide. With this in mind, this review was designed to evaluate the prevalence of hypertension in Ecuador. We systematically searched publications in Medline, Cumulative Index of Nursing and Allied Health Literature, Cochrane Database, and Ibero-America electronic databases for articles published through September 2019 and reporting the prevalence of hypertension in Ecuador. Selected data were subjected to meta-analysis, and pooled prevalence and their 95% (95% CI) were calculated. Seventeen articles have been selected according to the inclusion/exclusion criteria of the study. The overall estimate of the pooled prevalence of hypertension was 35.8% (CI: 31.3–38.4). Most importantly, the prevalence of hypertension increased markedly with age and obesity. Pooled estimates for the four age subdivisions (<30 years), (≥30 and ≤50 years), (>50 and ≤60 years) and (>60 years) were 9.4% (CI: 7.3–11.5), 22.0% (CI: 19.0–25.0), 26.1% (22.2–30.0) and 48.7% (CI: 45.4–52.0), respectively. Moreover, the pooled estimate of subjects with BMI ≥ 30 kg/m2 (57.7%, CIs: 45.6–69.8) was markedly higher than those with BMI < 30 kg/m2 (30.4%, CI: 23.3–38.4). Although limited, available data reported higher rates of hypertension in Afro-Ecuadorians than other ethnicities. This study underlines a high prevalence of hypertension in adults nationwide, but mostly in elderly and obese individuals. The magnitude of this burden emphasizes the need for robust and targeted interventions to control hypertension, and ultimately reverse the trend of cardiovascular diseases.

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Fig. 1: PRISMA flow chart illustrating the selection of the studies included in the systematic review.
Fig. 2: Forest plot of a random-effects meta-analysis of the overall prevalence of hypertension.
Fig. 3: Forest plot of a random-effects meta-analysis of the prevalence of hypertension in age-subdivisions.
Fig. 4: Forest plot of a random-effects meta-analysis of the prevalence of hypertension in obese and non-obese individuals.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Hackensack University Medical Center, Hackensack, NJ, USA

    Tahar Hajri, Luis Caceres & Viviana Angamarca-Armijos

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  1. Tahar Hajri
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  3. Viviana Angamarca-Armijos
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Contributions

TH: conceptualization, reviewing the methodology, data curation. writing-reviewing and editing. LC: methodology, data curation, writing-parts of the original draft. VA: methodology, data curation, writing-parts of the original draft.

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Correspondence to Tahar Hajri.

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Hajri, T., Caceres, L. & Angamarca-Armijos, V. The burden of hypertension in Ecuador: a systematic review and meta-analysis. J Hum Hypertens 35, 389–397 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41371-020-00471-7

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