Prevalence and risk factors associated with hypertension in the Chinese Qiang population

ABSTRACT

Our aim is to investigate the prevalence and risk factors associated with hypertension among the Chinese Qiang population. From September 2012 to March 2013, a cross-sectional study was conducted in urban and rural communities of the Qiang population using multistage cluster sampling. A total of 2676 people aged above 20 years were enrolled in the analysis. Standardized mercury sphygmomanometer was used to measure the blood pressure twice after a 10-minute seated rest, and the average blood pressure was obtained. The hypertension prevalence among the population aged above 20 years was 13.9%, and age-standardized prevalence was 12.3%. Male and female prevalence of hypertension, as well as the prevalence in urban and rural areas, all increased with age. There were no significant differences between males and females and between urban and rural residents. Among hypertensive patients, 44.2% were aware of their hypertension, 38.0% were undergoing antihypertensive treatment, but only 10.5% achieved blood pressure control. Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that the risk factors of hypertension included age, low income, overweight and obesity, family history of hypertension. The prevalence of hypertension in Chinese Qiang adults is significantly lower than the national level. Awareness, treatment, and control rates of hypertension were low in the Qiang population. Thus, hypertension-related health knowledge should be more aggressively delivered to improve public awareness and the capacity of community health services should be strengthened.

KEYWORDS:

• Prevalence
• hypertension
• Chinese Qiang population

Acknowledgments

We sincerely thank all the study staffs who have taken the risk of landslides and other possible dangers and entered into the Alpine areas and paid hard work, which is an important reason for the successful completion of this study.

Declaration of interest

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Funding

This work was supported by the project of the Science & Technology Department of Sichuan province supporting plan [2009FZ0027].

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the project of the Science &Technology Department of Sichuan province supporting plan [2009FZ0027].

Notes on contributors

Xiao-bo Huang

Xiao-bo Huang participated in the design of this study and is responsible for writing the manuscript;

Fei Chen

Wen Dai, Lei Song, and Jun-bo Xu participated in the design of this study;

Wen Dai

Jian-xiong Liu, Yan-jing Yi, Ya Liu, Yong Chen, participated in the data collection and checked the data; Fei Chen and Jiao Tu participated in the design of this study, and performed the statistical analysis.

Lei Song

Shui-ping Zhao and Tzung-Dau Wang participated in the design of this study and edited the manuscript. All authors have read and approved the final manuscript.