Prevalence and Perception of Hypertension among Female Adults Living on the Atlantic Coastline of Rural Lagos State, South-West Nigeria – A Baseline Exploration

Aims: This study attempted to describe the prevalence and perception of hypertension (HTN) among consenting female adults in two rural communities on the Atlantic coastline of Lagos, Southwest Nigeria
Study Design: This was a community-based descriptive survey design.
Place and Duration of Study: The study was conducted at Iyafin and Ketu-Ejirin in Lagos State, Nigeria, between March and June 2014.
Methodology: To accomplish this aim, a structured questionnaire was served to all parents/care-givers who brought their children to an on-going malaria program so as to evaluate their perception of hypertension. Socio-demographic and other relevant data were obtained and resting blood pressure (BP) of each participant was measured. Hypertension, defined as systolic BP ≥140 and/or diastolic BP ≥90 mmHg, was categorized into mild, moderate and severe. Data were analyzed using STATA 13.
Results: A total of 77 adult females (mean age 33.4 years) participated in the study. The prevalence of hypertension in our study participants was 18.2% while 19.5% of the participants presented with elevated systolic blood pressure only and 26.0% with elevated diastolic blood pressure only. Approximately 24%, 7% and 2% of married participants presented with mild, moderate and severe diastolic hypertension respectively and 20.8% of hypertensive participants measured their BP more than 2 years prior to survey. A proportion (33, 43%) of the participants did not know what hypertension is while 14 (18 %) and 11(14%) respectively related it to excessive thinking and fear. Married participants were about 6 times more likely to have had their BP measured (χ²=9.2, P = 0.002, OR=5.9, CI =1.8, 20.1) compared to single participants. The commonest reason for measuring BP was general check-up (13%) among single and illness-related (23%) among married participants. Majority of single (73%) and married (53%) participants wanted their BP measured to know about personal health problems. Linear regression analysis showed a positive significant relationship between both systolic blood pressure and length of time of last BP measurement (Coef. = 0.20, P=0.01).
Conclusion: Findings in our study suggest a relatively high prevalence of hypertension among women in rural coastline communities in Nigeria coupled with limited knowledge and misconception of the disease. This gap in knowledge and misconception could impact negatively on their health-seeking attitude and family life, calling for an aggressive approach to health promotion/education on and regular screening of hypertension in these coastal rural communities.