A hospital based cross sectional study was carried out to analyze prevalence of risk factors for stroke in hospitalized patient in a medical college hospital. 100 patients were chosen using purposive sampling technique. Highest incidence of stroke was between the 6th and 7th decade. Patients came from both urban (54%) and rural (46%) areas and most of them belong to the low-income group (47%). In occupational category; service holder (28%) and retired person (21%) were the highest groups. Most of the study subjects were literate (63%). CT scan study revealed that the incidence of ischaemic stroke was 61% and haemorrhagic stroke 39%. Analysis indicated hypertension as major risk factor for stroke (63%) and major portion of the patients (42.85%) were on irregular or no treatment. Twenty four percent of the patients had heart diseases and out of 24 patients 45.83% were suffering from ischaemic heart disease. The present study detected diabetes in 21% patients. Fifty three percent of the study subjects were smoker, 39% patients had habit of betelnut chewing. Out of 26 female patients, only 23% had history of using oral contraceptives. Majority of the patients were sedentary workers (46%). Thirty seven percent of the stroke patients were obese. Among the stroke patients 9% had previous history of stroke and 3% had TIA respectively. Most of the patients (21%) were awake while they suffered from stroke and the time of occurrence was mostly in the afternoon (46%). This study found that hypertension, cigarette smoking, ischaemic heart disease and diabetes mellitus are the major risk factors prevalent in our community while other risk factors demand further study.

Hypertension is an important independent predictor of cardiovascular disease, cerebrovascular accidents and death. The prevalence of cardiovascular diseases and hypertension is rapidly increasing in developing countries. A cross sectional study was conducted among 103 hypertensive patients during December 2009 to June 2010 in Goshair Hat Upazilla of Shariatpur District to determine the socio-demographic, clinical characteristics and status of control of hypertension in rural population. Respondents were distributed more or less equally among males and females. The mean ± SD and median age of the respondents were calculated as 59.97 ± 11.12 years, with 64% of them were included in the age group of 51 to 70 years. More than half of the respondents were housewives (51.5%), which were followed by businessmen (21.4%). Every three of five patients were over weight, while 22.3% respondents were obese. One third of the respondents were also diabetic (33%). None of the 103 patients had achieved the target for SBP (Systolic blood pressure) control (<140mm of Hg) and only 21.4% of the patients had achieved the target for DBP (Diastolic blood pressure) control (<90 mm of Hg). Again none of the diabetic hypertensive patients had achieved the target for SBP control (<130mm of Hg) and only one patient had achieved the target for DBP control (<80 mm of Hg). Overall five patients were found to have uncontrolled and severe hypertension (BP >180/110 mm of Hg), all of whom were female. From this study control of hypertension was found poor among rural hypertensive population. For effectively combating the burden of hypertension in this population, education and awareness about hypertension needs to be given priority. Key words: Hypertension; socio-demographic characteristics; rural area; control of blood pressure DOI: 10.3329/fmcj.v6i1.7402 Faridpur Med. Coll. J. 2011;6(1): 05-09

No abstract