Hypertension, an Emerging Problem in Rural Cameroon: Prevalence, Risk Factors, and Control

Abstract

Background. Despite the increasing trends suggesting that hypertension is a growing public health problem in developing countries, studies on its prevalence, associated risk factors, and extent of blood pressure control have been inequitably done in urban and rural communities in these countries. We therefore aimed to determine the prevalence of hypertension and extent of blood pressure control in rural Cameroon. Methods. This was a community-based cross-sectional study conducted in rural Cameroon (the Moliwe Health Area). Participants aged 21 years and above were recruited by a probability proportional to size multistage sampling method, using systematic sampling for household selection and random sampling for participant selection. Blood pressure, weight, and height were measured by standard methods. Hypertension was defined as BP ≥ 140/90 mmHg. Results. The prevalence of hypertension among the 733 participants recruited was 31.1% (95% CI: 27.8–34.6) and 71% (95% CI: 58.7–81.7) of these hypertensive patients were newly diagnosed. Only 21.2% (95% CI: 12.1–33.3) of known hypertensives had a well controlled BP. Age, obesity, low educational status, and being married were associated with HTN after adjusting for confounders. Conclusions. The high prevalence of hypertension and inadequate BP control among known hypertensives in rural Cameroon warrants greater sensitization and regular screening to reduce hypertension-related morbidity and mortality.

Epidemiology of Overweight and Obesity in Adults Living in Cameroon: A Systematic Review and Meta‐Analysis

“…Full texts of the remaining 76 records were scrutinized for eligibility, among which 50 were excluded. In the end, 26 studies were retained for meta‐analysis (Supporting Information Figure S1).…”

“…Seventeen studies were conducted in an urban area only, two in a rural area only, and seven in both urban and rural areas (Supporting Information Table S4). Twenty‐four studies measured BMI , sixteen measured WC , eight measured WHR , and two measured %BF .…”

“…The burden of some of these complications in Cameroon is higher compared with Africa (11)(12)(13). For instance, the prevalence of diabetes mellitus is estimated at 6.8% (11), the prevalence of hypertension varies between 30% and 40% (14)(15)(16)(17), and the prevalence of chronic kidney disease varies between 4% and 14% (18,19).…”

A silent killer in the Far North Region of Cameroon: increasing prevalence of hypertension among population living in Kaele

“…According to WHO (2011) [5] 30 to 50% of death were attributed to HTN in developing countries. In Cameroon, prevalence of HTN is reported to varied from 31.1% in rural milieu [6], 32.2% in semi-urban [7] to 47.5% in urban milieu [8] with a national average of 31.0% [9].…”

“…The relationship between HTN and others cardiometabolic risk factors such as overweight, abdominal obesity, hypercholesterolemia and hypertriglyceridemia were evaluated (Table 5 and6). The Pearson correlation between BP and some anthropometric and lipid parameters revealed a positive correlation between BMI and SBP (r=0.139 ; p=0.048) or DBP (r=0.181 ; p=0.010); and between waist and SBP (r=0.265 ; p=0.0001) (Table 5).…”