Correlation between Blood Pressure Levels and Clinical Signs and Symptoms of Hypertensive Patients: A Gender and Age Based Comparison

Objective: To determine correlation between systolic and diastolic blood pressure levels and selected signs and symptoms among different gender and age groups of hypertensive patients. Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out at urban hospital after taking ethical approval, among patients with self-reported history of hypertension and on anti-hypertensive medication. After taking ethical approval, a total of 372 patients aged 18 or above were included in the study by employing convenient sampling technique. A detailed history was taken from each patient about hypertension associated symptoms with the help of a questionnaire whereas designed specifically for the study. Blood pressure was measured using sphygmomanometer with stethoscope. SPSS version 20 was used to analyse the collected data and the duration of study was 6 months. Results: Among males older age, belonging to older age group >40 years, having more height and positive history of irregular heartbeat/palpitation were highly correlated with increase in systolic blood pressure (p<0.001 for all), among females, positive history of sleep apnoea was highly correlated with increase in systolic blood pressure (p<0.001) and having more height and positive history of sleep apnoea were highly correlated with increase in diastolic blood pressure (p<0.001 for both), among <40 years old milder change in urinary frequency was highly correlated with increase in systolic blood pressure (p<0.001) whereas among >40 years old positive history of headache, vertigo, sleep apnoea and irregular heartbeat/palpitation were highly correlated with increase in systolic blood pressure (p<0.001 for all) and having more height was highly correlated with increase in diastolic blood pressure (p<0.001). Conclusion: Among other signs and symptoms, positive history of irregular heartbeat/palpitation was found to be significantly correlated with both high systolic and diastolic blood pressure levels in both males and females as well as in >40 years old patients.