[Impact of socioeconomic factors on blood pressure control: Observational study about 2887 hypertensive patients].

Introduction: Despite therapeutic progress, less than half of hypertensive patients are controlled. The objective of this study was to examine the links between blood pressure control and socioeconomic factors.

Methods: We used data collected in the cardiology department of Sfax University Hospital as part of the Tunisian national hypertension registry. We studied the associations between the socio-economic variables (educational level, profession, medical insurance) and optimal blood pressure control (SBP<140mmHg and DBP<90mmHg) using logistic regression models.

Results: The average age of our population was 65 and the sex ratio was 0.95. We found, as expected, the clinical and behavioral factors associated with a good blood pressure control, namely: female sex, low-sodium diet, therapeutic compliance, and regular physical activity. However, obesity and an increased number of antihypertensive drugs have been associated with poor blood pressure control. The study of the effect of socio-economic variables on BP control finds a significant gradient against the most disadvantaged social categories for our three social variables in the univariate analysis. The inclusion of clinical and behavioral factors in the multivariate analysis attenuated these associations but did not fully explain them.

Conclusion: Our study shows that there are social inequalities in the control of blood pressure. Social justice and improving living conditions are probably the real solutions to the problem of these social inequalities in health.