Prevalence and Correlates of Sustained Hypertension in Adolescents of Rural Wardha, Central India

To study the prevalence of hypertension and its determinants among adolescents in rural areas of Wardha. The cross-sectional study was carried out in villages under PHC Talegaon (Talatule) of Wardha district of central India. Out of total population of 37,946 in the PHC, 7435 were adolescents. For the study purpose 1055 adolescents' were selected by simple random sampling method. Among sampled adolescents, 990 were interviewed and examined. The study was conducted during January 2008-December 2008. Hypertension was defined as raised BP (average SBP and/or DBP > 95th percentile) for age, sex and height on two additional occasions. Data thus generated was entered and analyzed using epi_info 6. The prevalence of hypertension and pre-hypertension was found to be 3.4% and 10.6% respectively. Bivariate analysis showed significant association (p < 0.05) of hypertension and prehypertension with age, education, occupation, type of family, use of smokeless tobacco, amount of salt consumption, nutritional status, education level of mother and blood pressure level of mother, and father. On multivariate analysis of the present study, the final model by ordinal logistic regression showed significant association of hypertension/pre-hypertension of adolescents with age, type of family, BMI of adolescent and blood pressure of mother and father. The prevalence of hypertension and pre-hypertension was 3.4% and 10.6% respectively. The significant correlates of hypertension and pre-hypertension were age, type of family, BMI of subject and blood pressure of mother and father.