Prevalence of hypertension in women above 30 years of age in Minoudar, Qazvin, Iran

BACKGROUND: Hypertension (HTN) is one of the most important causes of early mortality and a risk factor of many diseases such as cerebrovascular and coronary artery diseases and renal failure. We aimed to determine the prevalence of HTN in women above 30 years of age in Qazvin, Iran. METHODS: In a cross- sectional study in Minoudar (Qazvin, Iran), 328 women who aged above 30 years old were selected using simple random sampling. Their sitting blood pressure was measured twice and the mean values were recorded. Their height and weight were also measured and their body mass index (BMI) was calculated. Data was collected in a questionnaire including age, education, smoking, alcohol, oral contraceptive pills (OCP) and salt consumption, and history of HTN and its treatment. The collected data was analyzed using descriptive statistics and chi-square test in SPSS16. P values less than 0.05 were considered significant. RESULTS: The mean age of participants was 47.3 ± 1.1 years. Total frequency of HTN was 32%. In addition, 59.2% of hypertensive individuals were aware of their disease. While 48.1% of them were receiving treatment, only 21.3% had controlled blood pressure. Salt intake was determined as none, moderate, and high in 9.1%, 63.7%, and 27.1% of the participants, respectively. Most subjects (71.6%) did not exercise, 12.8% exercised less than 2 hours a week and 15.5% exercised more than 2 hours a week. Overall, 8.8% of the participants had used OCP. None of the subjects had used alcohol. Overweight and obesity were detected in 38.7% and 40.8% of the studied women, respectively. There were significant relations between age and systolic and diastolic blood pressure (P < 0.01). Moreover, salt intake was significantly related with high systolic and diastolic blood pressure (P = 0.02). CONCLUSION: A significant percentage of hypertensive participants did not know about their disease and did not have controlled blood pressure. Most women did not perform adequate exercise.