Prevalence and risk correlates of hypertension among adult rural population in Bihar

Background: Cardiovascular diseases will be prime cause of morbidity by 2020 in India. Objective: To determine prevalence and correlates of hypertension in an adult rural community. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out in the field practice area of the Department of Community Medicine of tertiary care teaching institute of Bihar among adult population to find out the prevalence of hypertension with the sociodemographic correlates from October 2009 to September 2010. A pretested predesigned questionnaire was used to collect sociodemographics data by interview technique from 997 study participants. The blood pressure was assessed and classified using recent JNC 7 and WHO criteria to grade hypertension. Results: Majority of the study participants were Muslims (89%) and in 40-49 age group (21.26%). In males and females, the overweight and obese combined were, respectively, 13%. In the dietary habit, 85.36% were non-vegetarian; 8.83% consumed salt more than 10 grams per day; 26.78% reported themselves as alcoholics; tobacco smokers were 58.28%, highest in 40-49 age group (23.58%). Overall, 11.43% were hypertensive and 16% were prehypertensive. Among hypertensive, majority were male (61%); and in 60-69 age group (27.27%), overweight and obese (56.14%), smokers (75.44%), non-vegetarian (67.54%). There was a significant linear trend between age and salt intake with prevalence of hypertension (P<0.0001). Conclusions: Hypertension in the rural population of Bihar was lower than previous estimates.