Epidemiologic Studies of the Prevalence of Arterial Hypertension among Commercial Motor Bike Riders in Benin City, Nigeria.

Abstract

An epidemiologic study was carried out in the dry season on 250 male commercial motor bike riders from five different parks. 69% of the bike riders were in the (year) 31– 40 and 41–50 age range while 31% were in 21–30, 51– 60 and 61 – 70 age range. Half of the population studied were normotensive. Arterial hypertension was found in 63 (25%) of the examined workers (p<0.05), and borderline hypertension was found in 60(24%) of the workers (p<0.05).The 31– 40 age range had the highest incidence of hypertension accounting for 24(38%) of the total 63 frank cases of hypertension. The severity of the hypertension increased with the age of the workers. Also, the severity of hypertension increased linearly with their duration of exposure to commercial motor bike riding(r=0.6, P<0.05). Heart rate showed an increase with age. The characteristics of the hypertension structure and it‘s interesting relation to age and number of years of commercial bike riding , are discussed. Of particular interest is the significant number of young adult bike riders found to be hypertensive.

Keywords: Hypertension, commercial bike riders, Benin City.

Nigerian Journal of Health and Biomedical Sciences Vol. 6 (2) 2007: pp. 26-29