Prevalence of hypertension among the adults in coastal and non coastal areas

A cross sectional community based study was conducted in 10 coastal and 10 non coastal areas to assess the prevalence of hypertension in Nellore district. A total of 5000 samples were included in this study. Among this, 2500 samples belongs to coastal areas 2500 samples belongs to non coastal areas. In coastal areas, Among 2500 samples, with regard to blood pressure, 460 (18.4%) samples were found to have stage-1 hypertension, 139 (5.56%) samples had high normal blood pressure, 648 (25.92%) samples were found to be normal, 656 (26.24%) had optimal blood pressure, 112 (4.48%) samples had stage –II hypertension, least samples 15(0.6%) belongs to stage-3 hypertension, 413(16.52%) had grade-1 systolic hypertension, and 57(2.28%) samples had grade-2 systolic hypertension. *510(20.40%) samples were newly diagnosed as hypertensive cases. 103(4.12%) samples were obese. In non coastal areas, Among 2500 samples, with regard to blood pressure most of the samples 1419 (56.7%) were found to have stage-1 hypertension, 637(25.5%) samples had high normal, 198 (8.0%) samples had stage –II hypertension, 161 (6.4%) samples were found to be normal, 67 (2.7%) had optimal, 18 (0.7%) samples under the criteria of stage –III hypertension, 6(0.2%) having grade-1 systolic hypertension, and 4(0.2%) samples having grade-2 systolic hypertension. *1313(52.52%) samples were newly diagnosed as hypertensive cases. 170 (6.8%) samples were obese. The correlation coefficient value is highly significant (0.143) and the standard deviation is 380.87. The above results shown that blood pressure values and obesity are higher in the non coastal areas than in the coastal areas. The variables like age, education, type of family, occupation, income, working members in the family, type of ventilation, sleeping hours, sleeping pattern, exercises, type of oil used, amount of oil used per day per person, type of salt, entertainment, stress, obesity are the influencing risk factors for the development of hypertension among the adults.