Prevalence, Awareness, Treatment, and Control of Hypertension in the United Arab Emirates: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

Background: Evidence for the prevalence, awareness, treatment, and control of hypertension in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is limited. A systematic review and meta-analysis were conducted to summarize the existing knowledge regarding the prevalence, awareness, treatment, and control of hypertension in the UAE.

Methods: We searched PubMed/MEDLINE, Embase, Scopus, and Google Scholar using prespecified medical subject handling (MeSH) terms and text words to identify the relevant published articles from 1 January 1995 to 31 August 2021. Population-based prospective observational studies conducted among healthy adult subjects living in the UAE and that defined hypertension using the guidelines-recommended blood pressure (BP) cut-offs ≥ 130/80 mmHg or ≥ 140/90 mmHg were considered.

Results: Of 1038 studies, fifteen cross-sectional studies were included for data extraction involving 139,907 adults with a sample size ranging from 74 to 50,138 and with cases defined as blood pressure ≥ 140/90 mmHg. The pooled prevalence of hypertension was 31% (95% confidence interval (CI): 27-36), and a higher prevalence was observed in Dubai (37%, 95% CI: 28-45) than in the Abu Dhabi region (29%, 95% CI: 24-35) and in multicenter studies (24%, 95% CI: 14-33). The level of awareness was only 29% (95% CI: 17-42), 31% (95% CI: 18-44) for treatment, and 38% (95% CI: 19-57) had controlled BP (< 140/90 mmHg).

Conclusion: This study revealed a high prevalence of hypertension with low awareness and suboptimal control of hypertension. Multifaceted approaches that include the systematic measurement of BP, raising awareness, and improving hypertension diagnoses and treatments are needed.