Prevalence and determinants of hypertension among adult population in Nepal: Data from Nepal Demographic and Health Survey 2016

Like other developing countries, Nepal is currently going through epidemiological transition along with rising burden of Non-communicable Diseases. However, since 2013, no study investigated the prevalence and determinants of hypertension in Nepal involving nationally representative sample. Therefore, this study aimed to find out the current prevalence of hypertension in Nepal and its determinants using the latest nationally representative data obtained from Nepal Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS) 2016. The NDHS 2016 collected data on hypertension from 13,304 men and women aged 18 years and above from 5,520 urban and 5,970 rural households covering seven administrative provinces and three ecological zones. Participants were considered as hypertensive when their systolic blood pressure was ≥140 mmHg and/or diastolic blood pressure was ≥90 mmHg and/or they reported taking antihypertensive medication. A total of 19.9% study participants were diagnosed as hypertensive of which majority were male (male-24.3%, female-16.9%), ever married (ever married-21.7%, unmarried-6.1%) and residents of urban area (urban-20.9%, rural-18.3%). Hypertension prevalence has shown growing trend with the increase of age. This prevalence was also higher among rich and overweight/obese individuals. In multivariable logistic regression analysis, older age, male gender, better education, residence at urban area and province 4 and 5 and being overweight/obese were found positive association with having hypertension. When the determinants of hypertension were stratified by sex of the participants, difference was observed in case of age group, education and place of residence. As one out of every five individuals in Nepal are hypertensive, public health initiatives are immediately required for prevention and control of hypertension to reduce mortality and morbidity associated with this progressive disease.