Observational assessment and correlates to blood pressure of future physicians of Bengal

Abstract

Intoduction: Hypertension is a modern day epidemic and growing public health problem. A sizable proportion of world populations suffer from prehypertension or hypertension.
Objectives: The present study was carried out to detect the prevalence of undiagnosed hypertension among undergraduate medical students and to identify the associated risk factors.
Materials and Methods: The study was observational in nature and was done in medical colleges of Bengal. Study tool was a predesigned, pretested, validated, and semi-structured questionnaire containing both open-ended and closeended questions. Data were collected through self-administration, clinical, and anthropometric examination. The data were then tabulated, analyzed and interpretation was done by using percentage and Chi-square test.
Results: Most of the students (63%) were young adults, predominantly males (67%) and day scholars (71%). Almost one-third of them either suffered from hypertension or at risk of hypertension. Hypertension was found higher among male students. Family history of hypertension or diabetes mellitus was not associated with hypertension. Vegetarian or nonvegetarian diet or extra-salt consumption was also not associated with hypertension. Smoking was shown positively associated with hypertension but alcohol consumption was not. Higher per capita monthly income and overweight or obesity were shown positively associated with hypertension.
Conclusion: The overall prevalence of hypertension in this study was 13% and there were positive association of hypertension with multiple socio-demographic factors like age, sex, type of family, per capita monthly income, residence, BMI, smoking, etc.

Keywords: Associated factors, hypertension, undergraduate medical students

Nigerian Journal of Clinical Practice • Oct-Dec 2013 • Vol 16 • Issue 4