Social determinants of hypertension and type-2 diabetes in Kenya: A latent class analysis of a nationally representative sample.

Introduction: Cardiovascular disease is among the leading causes of death in Kenya and type II diabetes (T2D) is a growing chronic health concern in the country. However, a gap exists in examining how demographic and social characteristics coalesce to identify individuals at high risk for hypertension and/or T2D in Kenya. The current study examined demographic typologies associated with self-report diagnoses.

Methods: Nationally representative cross-sectional study using 43,898 individuals from the Kenya Demographic and Health Survey 2014. Main Outcome Measures were self-reported Hypertension and Type 2 Diabetes diagnosis. Descriptive analyses were conducted using STATA 14. Latent class analysis (LCA) was conducted using Mplus 7.4.

Results: Approximately 5% reported hypertension and 1% reported T2D. Latent class analysis suggested a 4-class solution. The class with the highest likelihood to report previous diagnosis of hypertension (10.4%), consisted of high proportion of married adult women. The second highest prevalence of previous diagnosis of hypertension (4.4%) consisted of a high proportion of married middle aged men with high probability of being smokers. The results suggest that Kenyan women over 30 years may be at increased risk of hypertension compared to men. Future studies should include additional socio-demographic and behavioral characteristics to better understand gender differences in correlates for hypertension to be used for targeted and tailored health promotion-interventions.