Factors associated with the severity of hypertension among Malaysian adults

Abstract

High blood pressure is a worldwide problem and major global health burden. Whether alone or combined with other metabolic diseases, high blood pressure increases the risk of cardiovascular disease. This study is a secondary data analysis from the National Health and Morbidity Survey 2015, a population-based study that was conducted nationwide in Malaysia using a multi-stage stratified cluster sampling design. A total of 15,738 adults ≥18-years-old were recruited into the study, which reports the prevalence of hypertension stages among adults in Malaysia using the JNC7 criteria and determinants of its severity. The overall prevalence of raised blood pressure was 66.8%, with 45.8% having prehypertension, 15.1% having Stage 1 hypertension, and 5.9% having Stage 2 hypertension. In the multivariate analysis, a higher likelihood of having prehypertension was observed among respondents with advancing age, males (OR = 2.74, 95% CI: 2.41–3.12), Malay ethnicity (OR = 1.21, 95% CI: 1.02–1.44), lower socioeconomic status, and excessive weight. The factors associated with clinical hypertension (Stages 1 and 2) were older age, rural residency (Stage 1 OR = 1.22, Stage 2 OR = 1.28), Malay ethnicity (Stage 2 OR = 1.64), diabetes (Stage 2 OR = 1.47), hypercholesterolemia (Stage 1 OR = 1.34, Stage 2 OR = 1.82), being overweight (Stage 1 OR = 2.86, Stage 2 OR = 3.44), obesity (Stage 1 OR = 9.01, Stage 2 OR = 13.72), and lower socioeconomic status. Almost 70% of Malaysian adults are at a risk of elevated blood pressure. The highest prevalence was in the prehypertension group, which clearly predicts a future incurable burden of the disease. Public health awareness, campaigns through mass and social media, and intervention in the work place should be a priority to control this epidemic.

Socioeconomic determinants of hypertension and prehypertension in Peru: Evidence from the Peruvian Demographic and Health Survey

“…Similar to previous studies [ 20 ], we found that in the general population, a secondary/higher education was associated with a lower prevalence of hypertension and prehypertension. However, studies carried out in Bangladesh disagreed with our results [ 24 , 30 ].…”

“…Previous representative studies from Bangladesh [ 24 ] and India [ 25 ] have found an association between living in urban areas and hypertension, which was consistent with our results. In contrast, in Malaysia [ 20 ], rural areas were associated with a higher prevalence of hypertension. This association mainly depends on the social setting and definition of urbanization.…”

Factors associated with hypertension in Pakistan: A systematic review and meta-analysis

“…Globally, about 1 billion people are living with hypertension as of today and according to the World Health Organization (WHO), this number expected to reach 1.56 billion people by 2025, covering 29.2% of the world’s population [ 6 ]. The worldwide occurrence of hypertension among adults rose sharply from 594 million in 1975 to 1.13 billion in 2015 [ 7 ]. In developed countries, 30% of the adult population is hypertensive, and this number is expected to increase to 60% in the coming decades [ 8 ].…”

Syzygium polyanthum Protects Against Hypertensive Induced Kidney Damage in Spontaneous Hypertensive Rat Model

“…Hypertension, a chronic increase in blood pressure above 140/90 mmHg, remains a major health challenge and burden worldwide (Whelton et al 2017;Mahadir Naidu et al 2019). This disease is one of the major public health problems with global prevalence which increased from 594 million to 1.13 billion people in 1975 and 2015 respectively (NCD Risk Factor Collaboration 2017).…”