Work history and diagnosed hypertension among older adults in Ghana: Evidence from WHO SAGE Wave2

Introduction: There is limited knowledge in the context of Africa on how work history associates with hypertension at old age. Therefore, this paper analyses such an association using Ghana as a case study. Methods: Data from the World Health Organisation Study on Global AGEing and Adult Health Wave 2 was used to explore the relationship between work history and diagnosed hypertension at old age. In the Wave2 study, a multistage cluster sampling was used to select participants at the household level across rural/urban areas in all administrative regions. A multifactor logit regression analysis was performed. The paper also estimated diagnosed hypertension prevalence across subgroups. Results: The mean age of the total of 3564 participants examined was 64 years (SD = ±10years). The overall prevalence of hypertension was 10.3% [95% CI = 9.4–11.1]. The highest predicted rate was 41.1% [95% CI=38.0 – 49.2] among those who stopped working before the statutory retirement age 60 years, whereas it was only 4% [95% CI = 3.7 – 5.2] for those who retired from active work at age 60 years. Those who retired at age 60years recorded the highest risk of hypertension diagnosis [OR = 14.1; 95% CI=10.5-19.5]. There was also a significant association between diagnosed hypertension and a history of working 5 days per week [OR=1.6; 95% CI=1.1-2.3]. It emerged that those with a history of informal sector employment were at significant risk of hypertension at old age, if they worked 5days per week [OR=1.5; 95% CI=1.0-2.3]. Conclusions: Overall, retirement age emerged as a significant risk factor for diagnosed hypertension at old age, followed by a history of less than five working days per week.