High blood pressure control in a rural area of Iran

Abstract EN

Objectives : Hypertension is an important risk factor for cardiovascular diseases.

One of the cornerstones of Primary prevention of cardiovascular diseases is screening high blood pressure and antihypertensive drug therapy.

Unfortunately little has been known about controlling of hypertension in rural areas of Iran.

This research was performed to assess the control of high blood pressure in rural areas of Charmahal and Bakhtaran Province.

Methods : In a cross- sectional study, 376 patients were selected by a random cluster sampling from 19 rural healthcare centers.

Their Blood pressure were measured and recorded.

Systolic Blood Pressure (SBP) lower than 140 mmHg and Diastolic Blood Pressure (DBP) lower than 90 mmHg were defined as successful control of high blood pressure.

The percentage of successful control of high blood pressure was calculated and its relation with gender, Body Mass Index (BMI), and type of drug therapy was evaluated.

Results : Blood pressure was successfully controlled in 125 of 376 patients (33%).

We found that male patients, and patients who were on multi-drug therapy had better blood pressure control (P-Value < 0.05).

There was not any significant relationship between BMI of patients with level of blood pressure control.

Conclusion : It seems that insufficient blood pressure control still, remains major public health problem.

These results underscore the urgent need to develop national strategy to improve treatment of hypertension.