Prevalence of hypertension and its associated factors in Hawassa city administration, Southern Ethiopia: Community based cross-sectional study.

Background: In association with the epidemiological, nutritional and demographic transition, many research findings showed that the number of risk factors that leads to increased prevalence of hypertension in low and middle income countries like Ethiopia is increasing. Several urban specific studies conducted in Ethiopia showed varying prevalence of hypertension. The aim of this study was to determine prevalence of hypertension and to identify factors associated with hypertension in Hawassa city administration, Southern Ethiopia.

Methods: A community-based cross sectional study was carried out in Hawassa city administration in 2017. A multi-stage sampling technique was used to select 612 study participants. Descriptive statistics was used to describe socio-demographic, behavioral and anthropometric variables. The economic status of household, 'wealth index', was constructed by running principal component analysis. Binary logistic regression analysis was performed to assess factors associated with hypertension at 95%CI.

Results: The overall prevalence of hypertension was 21.2% (95% CI: 18.1-24.7), (24.5% for urban and 14.7% for peri-urban). About two fifths of hypertension cases (42.3%) were newly diagnosed with elevated blood pressure during data collection. Age, occupation, wealth status, consuming vegetables and animal fat, usual mode of transport, body mass index (BMI), family history of hypertension and existence of diabetes were associated with presence of hypertension at 95%CI. The average diastolic blood pressure for urban was 2.18mmHg higher than that of peri-urban groups (p-0.01).

Conclusion: More than one fifth of study participants had hypertension and about two fifths of hypertension cases were newly diagnosed. Health communication should be strengthened focusing on identified risk factors and attention should be given to early detect and tackle the effects of hypertension in resource limited setting.