Demographic, life style and anthropometric correlates of blood pressure of Nigerian urban civil servants, factory and plantation workers

Abstract

Demographic, life style and anthropometric correlates of blood pressure were analysed in 5,200 civil servants, factory and plantation workers living in an urban setting in the South Eastern part of Nigeria. The subjects were 4,382 men (84.2%) and 818 (15.8%) women. The prevalence of hypertension, using the WHO criteria among the workers was 8.1%, and was lower in women than men, 3.5% and 8.9% respectively. Only 19.6% of the hypertensive population knew that they had hypertension, whilst 29.4% of the total population under study gave a positive family history of hypertension. The blood pressure and the prevalence of hypertension rose with age, number of children in the family, salary scale and with the number of cigarettes smoked per day. The prevalence of hypertension was higher in medium and heavy drinkers than the non-drinkers and light drinkers. The prevalence was also higher in medium and heavy smokers. Multiple regression analysis showed a significant positive relation between the systolic blood pressure and sex, age, marital status, number of children in the family, salary scale, tobacco consumption and weight (P less than 001). On the other hand, occupation (P less than 01) educational qualification (P less than 001), support system (P less than 03) and height (P less than 001) had significant negative relationships with systolic blood pressure. There was also a significant positive relation between the diastolic blood pressure and number of children in the family (P less than 002) and salary scale (P less than 001). It is suggested that hypertension screening and treatment should be incorporated in the primary health care programmes of African communities.