Factors associated with control of blood pressure among elderly people diagnosed with hypertension in a rural area of South Korea: The Chungju Metabolic Disease Cohort Study (CMC study)

Abstract

Objective. Control of blood pressure is important in old age for prevention of hypertension-associated complications. This study aimed to investigate the factors associated with control of hypertension in elderly people (≥60 years old) diagnosed with hypertension. Methods. The subjects were those who had a self-reported diagnosis of hypertension (532 men and 1078 women) from a stratified random cluster sample of 4201 people aged 60 years or older. Controlled hypertension was defined as a systolic blood pressure (SBP) <140 mmHg and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) <90 mmHg, and SBP <130 mmHg and DBP <80 mmHg for subjects with diabetes. Results. The prevalence of controlled hypertension (25.9%) was low. In older women, the prevalence of isolated uncontrolled SBP was increased. After adjusting for other covariates, uncontrolled hypertension was positively associated with body mass index (BMI≥23 kg/m²), and negatively associated with balanced diet and a past history of cardiovascular disease in men, whereas in women it was positively associated with waist circumference (≥80 cm). Conclusions. In elderly people diagnosed with hypertension general obesity (high BMI) appears to have an important influence on uncontrolled hypertension in men, whereas abdominal obesity (high waist circumference) appears to be an important factor in women.

Key Words::

• Control
• elderly
• hypertension
• obesity

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Andrew J. Schrage for assistance in revising the manuscript. We would also like to thank the personnel of the Chungju Public Health Center for recruiting the study participants as well as for collecting the data for this study. Furthermore, we would like to thank all the participants in this study. This study was supported by the grants from the “2003–2005 Korea Health Promotion Research Program” of the Ministry of Health and Welfare, Republic of Korea.

Declaration of interest: The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.