Prevalence, awareness, treatment and control of hypertension in Tibetan monks from Gansu Province, Northwest China

Abstract

Tibetan monks are a special group in life style and diet customs. We have little information of hypertension about them. Therefore, the objective of this study was to investigate the information on the prevalence, awareness, treatment and control of hypertension in these populations. A cross-sectional study of hypertension was carried out in 984 monks and 1042 Tibetan residents’ controls in the same area. All the subjects were selected for interview, and physical examination involved blood pressure (BP) measurement. The overall prevalence of hypertension in monks was significantly lower than those in local residents (19.3% versus 34.1%; p < 0.01). The rates of awareness, treatment and control in monks were also lower than those in local residents (9.5% versus 16.9%, 4.2% versus 13.2% and 1.6% versus 4.5%; p < 0.01 for each). These findings indicated that a low prevalence of hypertension among monks aged 18 years and over in Gannan Tibetan autonomous district of Gansu province in China. We concluded that the relatively healthy diet and ways of life in monks were the major contributing factors to the lower prevalence of hypertension. However, the awareness, treatment and control rates of hypertension were also low. The possible reasons were most likely due to the difficult access to quality medical care and poor health education.

• Awareness
• hypertension
• prevalence
• Tibetan monks
• treatment

Acknowledgements

We thanks all the participants and leaders of Gannan monasteries and Ganan Tibetan district who gave us permission to carry out this study and all the staffs of the survey for their efforts which made this study performed successfully.

Declaration of interest

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of this article.