Blood pressure, hypertension and correlates in urbanised workers in Ibadan, Nigeria: A revisit

To provide an update on blood pressure (BP) levels and hypertension correlates in urban workers in Ibadan, Nigeria, we administered a questionnaire to, and measured the BP in, 608 men and 309 women, age range 18-64 years. Systolic BP (SBP) rose in men and women after the age of 25, but the rise in diastolic BP (DBP) started earlier dropping in women only after the age of 44. SBP and DBP were higher in men than women (P < 0.001). The prevalence of hypertension was 9.3% in the population, being 10.4% in men and 7.1% in women; age-adjusted rates were 9.8% and 8.0% respectively. The prevalence of hypertension increased with age in both genders. Body mass index was correlated to SBP (r = 0.142, P = 0.022) and DBP (r = 0.149, P = 0.032) in men, and with SBP (r = 0.1501, P = 0.013) and DBP (r = 0.1569, P = 0.0085) in women. BP was correlated to years of education (P < 0.001) and income (P < 0.001) in men, but not in women. Regular and moderate alcohol consumption was associated with hypertension (χ2 = 4.8, P < 0.05). Awareness of BP status was generally low, 7.7% in men and 8.7% in women, but was significantly higher in the hypertensives than the normotensives (χ2 = 241, P < 0.0001). The hypertension prevalence rates are not too different from figures obtained in the last four decades, which generally have not exceeded 15%, inspite of the apparent influence of the modernisation indices of education and income.