Arterial Hypertension in Saudi Arabia

Abstract

A cross-sectional population-based survey employing a cluster sampling method and household visits by trained health teams investigated hypertension prevalence in the Kingdom among 13,700 individuals of both sexes in all age groups. The World Health Organization (WHO) definition of hypertension of ∫ 160/95 mmHg was used; it was found that 9.1% and 8.7% of the total sample investigated were systolic and diastolic hypertensives, respectively. However, 12.4% and 7.9% of children younger than 18 years were systolic and diastolic hypertensive. Among adults aged 18 years and above, 5.3% were systolic and 7.3% were diastolic hypertensives; 87.5% of systolic and 79.4% of diastolic hypertensives were aged 40 years and over. Females had statistically significant elevated systolic hypertension compared with males (P < 0.01). However, if blood pressure ∫ 140/90 mmHg is used as a criterion for hypertension definition, the prevalence among the latter age groups would be 20.4% for systolic and 25.9% for diastolic hypertension. The prevalence of Isolated Systolic Hypertension (ISH), Isolated Diastolic Hypertension (IDH) and Systolic Diastolic Hypertension (SDH) among adults above 18 years was 1.8%, 3.8% and 3.5% respectively. ISH was higher among females compared with males (2% vs 1.4%), while IDH was higher among males than females (4.4% vs 3.4%). There is a need for tracking childhood hypertension, which could provide longterm analysis for risk of adult hypertension. Ann Saudi Med 1997; 17 (2) Hypertension is a major public health problem worldwide and is one of the risk factors for coronary artery disease 1,2 and cerebrovascular disease. 3 In a series of risk factors, hypertension almost competes with elevated plasma cholesterol for the first place. 4Communicable diseases are becoming less common in developing countries. However, the dramatic changes in lifestyle and food consumption patterns have led to the emergence of noncommunicable disease, such as hypertension, as a public health problem in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Several studies indicate that hypertension and its related clinical events, such as myocardial infarction and stroke, appear to be increasing, although at a lower rate than in other parts of the world. 4-8The objective of this study is to investigate the patterns of systolic and diastolic blood pressure (BP) in household random samples of the Saudi population. No study has been undertaken which covers the entire population of the Kingdom and this led us to initiate the present study. MethodologyThe data in this study came from a major national survey entitled "Evaluation of the Nutritional Status of the People of Saudi Arabia," conducted during 1989-1994, and sponsored by King Abdul Aziz City for Science and Technology. The detailed study design has been reported elsewhere. 9The information was collected through a community-based study which employed the cluster sampling method and household visits by trained health teams. The survey was an extensive undertaking which required geographic and demographic ...

Hypertension among Tunisian adults: results of the TAHINA project

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