Prevalence, Awareness, Treatment, and Control of Hypertension in Young Adults (20-39 Years) in Kerala, South India

Zachariah Geevar; Mangalath Narayanan Krishnan; Krishnannair Venugopal; Ganesh Sanjay; S Harikrishnan; Padinhare Purayil Mohanan; G K Mini; Kavumpurathu Raman Thankappan

doi:10.3389/fcvm.2022.765442

Prevalence, Awareness, Treatment, and Control of Hypertension in Young Adults (20-39 Years) in Kerala, South India

Front Cardiovasc Med. 2022 Apr 18:9:765442. doi: 10.3389/fcvm.2022.765442. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Zachariah Geevar¹, Mangalath Narayanan Krishnan², Krishnannair Venugopal³, Ganesh Sanjay⁴, S Harikrishnan⁴, Padinhare Purayil Mohanan⁵, G K Mini⁶, Kavumpurathu Raman Thankappan⁷

Affiliations

¹ Mother Hospital, Thrissur, India.
² Ahalia Hospital, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
³ Department of Cardiology, Pushpagiri Medical College, Tiruvalla, India.
⁴ Department of Cardiology, Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology, Thiruvananthapuram, India.
⁵ Westfort Hitech Hospital, Thrissur, India.
⁶ Department of Public Health, Global Institute of Public Health, Thiruvananthapuram, India.
⁷ Department of Public Health, Central University of Kerala, Kasaragod, India.

Abstract

Objective: We sought to study the prevalence of hypertension and the levels of awareness, treatment and control of hypertension in the young adults in Kerala, India compared to older adults.

Methods: We identified 1,221 young adults (men 36.7%) in the age group 20-39 years from the 5,150 participants of the Cardiological Society of India Kerala Coronary artery disease (CAD) and its Risk factors Prevalence (CSI Kerala CRP) Study. We determined prevalence and levels of awareness, treatment and control of hypertension among them compared to older adults.

Results: We found that among the young adults, 11.2% had hypertension and 33.3% had prehypertension. Hypertension was nearly three times more prevalent among men than women (20.5 vs. 7.5% p < 0.001) while in older adults there was no difference between men and women in its prevalence. Male sex (OR 3.36, 95% CI 2.15-5.25 p-value <0.001), urban residence (OR 2.21, 95% CI 1.52-3.22 p-value <0.001), abdominal obesity (OR 1.74, 95% CI 1.06-2.87 p-value 0.028) and hypercholesterolemia (OR 1.64 95% CI 1.12-2.40 p-value 0.011) were significant factors favoring hypertension in the young adults. Awareness and treatment of hypertension were significantly poor among younger adults compared to older adults. In young adults, awareness, treatment and control of hypertension were significantly lower among men compared to women (23.9 vs. 51.7% p-value 0.001, 12.0 vs. 25.9% p-value 0.045, and 18.5 vs. 37.9% p-value 0.012, respectively). Participants who had checked blood pressure at least once during the previous year had significantly better awareness and treatment (58.7 vs. 24.0% and 41.3 vs. 19.2%, respectively).

Conclusions: We found that one eighth of young subjects had hypertension with three times higher prevalence of hypertension among men compared to women. Awareness, treatment and control of hypertension were less among young adults and worse in young men compared to young women. Identifying hypertension and measures to control it are important and should be specifically targeted to young men.

Keywords: high blood pressure India; hypertension in India; hypertension in young adults; prevalence of hypertension; prevalence of hypertension Kerala; treatment and control of hypertension.