Prevalence, Awareness, Treatment, and Control of Hypertension in the Southern Cone of Latin America

ADOLFO RUBINSTEIN; IRAZOLA, V.; POGGIO, R; LANAS, F; CALANDRELLI, M; PONZO, J; OLIVERA, H; SERON, P; BAZZANO, L; GUTIERREZ, L; HE, J

CIRCULATION

LIPPINCOTT WILLIAMS & WILKINS

Lugar: Philadelphia; Año: 2013 p. 1 - 30

0009-7322

Objective: Hypertension is the major preventable risk factor for cardiovascular disease (CVD) and premature deaths worldwide. We conducted a population-based cross-sectional study in a multistage-probabilistic sample of around 8,000 subjects aged 35-74 years old from 4 cities of the Southern Cone of Latin America (SCLA): Bariloche and Marcos Paz in Argentina, Temuco in Chile and Canelones in Uruguay, to estimate the prevalence and distribution of hypertension, and to determine hypertension awareness, treatment, and control in this population. Methods: Three blood pressure (BP) measurements were obtained by trained observers. Data on history of hypertension and use of BP medications was obtained from a standard questionnaire. Hypertension was defined as a mean systolic BP ≥140 mm Hg and/or diastolic BP ≥90 mm Hg and/or use of antihypertensive drugs. Prevalence of hypertension was calculated by weighting sampling factors derived from population census data from 2010 for each city. Results: Of the adult population aged 35-74 yrs, 43.3 % (44.7% in men and 41.5% in women) had hypertension. The age-specific prevalence was 24.9%, 39.8%, 59%, and 71.8% for ages 35-44, 45-54, 55-64 and 65-74 yrs, respectively. In addition, the prevalence of hypertension decreased with the levels of education (52.2%, 40.7% and 33.6% for primary, secondary and tertiary/university education, respectively). Overall, 62.2% of hypertensives were aware of their diagnosis, 47.7 % were under drug treatment, and 21.5 % achieved BP control (