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Association of socio-demographic characteristics with hypertension awareness, treatment, and control in Bangladesh

Journal of Human Hypertension volume 37, pages 993–999 (2023)Cite this article

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Abstract

Hypertension has been rapidly growing in Bangladesh. However, there has been limited analysis of differences in the hypertension cascade across socio-demographic groups. This study was a secondary analysis of the 2017–18 Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey. Four dichotomous outcome variables – hypertension prevalence, awareness among those with hypertension, treatment among those aware, and control among those treated – were analyzed. The variation of each outcome was assessed across socio-demographic factors. The association between socio-demographic characteristics and outcomes was analyzed using logistic regression. Less than half of the hypertensive individuals were aware of their hypertension (42.5%), and awareness was higher among those who were older, female, of higher household wealth, and living in urban areas. Among those aware, most were receiving treatment (87.4%), and this proportion was higher in older individuals (89.2% among 65 + , 70.4% among 18–24; p < 0.001). One-third of those treated (33.8%) had their blood pressure controlled, and this was higher among younger and more educated individuals. In multivariable models stratified by rural/urban community, most of the aforementioned trends remained with additional differences between communities. Notably, the association of higher education level with treatment odds differed in rural and urban communities (OR 0.34 [95%CI 0.16, 0.75] in rural; OR 2.83 [95%CI 1.04, 7.73] in urban). Efforts to improve hypertension awareness among individuals who are younger, male, of lower household wealth, and in rural areas are required to address disparities in care. Socio-demographic variations in hypertension awareness, treatment, and control must be considered to design targeted interventions for each step of the cascade.

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Fig. 1: Proportion of hypertension awareness, treatment, and control out of all individuals with hypertension in Bangladesh.

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Data availability

All questionnaire data for the 2017–18 BDHS was requested from the DHS Program, which provides this data to individuals for academic purposes upon request and registration. The dataset can be found at https://dhsprogram.com/methodology/survey/survey-display-536.cfm.

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Author information

Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Aliya Naheed, David C Boettiger.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA

    Masih A. Babagoli

  2. Institute for Global Health Sciences, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA

    Masih A. Babagoli & Yea-Hung Chen

  3. Health System and Population Studies Division, icddr,b, Dhaka, Bangladesh

    Nantu Chakma, Md. Saimul Islam & Aliya Naheed

  4. Kirby Institute, University of New South Wales, Kensington, NSW, Australia

    David C. Boettiger

  5. Institute for Health and Aging, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA

    David C. Boettiger

  6. Faculty of Medicine, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand

    David C. Boettiger

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  4. Md. Saimul Islam
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Contributions

Conception or design of the work: MAB, YC, DCB. Data collection: not applicable. Data analysis and interpretation: MAB, YC, DCB. Drafting the article: MAB. Critical revision of the article: MAB, NC, MDI, AN, DCB. Final approval of the version to be submitted: MAB, YC, NC, MDI, AN, DCB.

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Correspondence to Masih A. Babagoli.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Ethical approval for this type of study was not required by the University of California, San Francisco since the data are de-identified and any geo-spatial data are displaced to protect the confidentiality of survey respondents.

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Babagoli, M.A., Chen, YH., Chakma, N. et al. Association of socio-demographic characteristics with hypertension awareness, treatment, and control in Bangladesh. J Hum Hypertens 37, 993–999 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41371-023-00815-z

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