Primary Healthcare

Biography

Biography: Ahmad A Mirza

Abstract

Education and awareness of patients play an important role in the early diagnosis and control of many diseases, including hypertension. We aimed to assess the level of education and awareness among the relatives of medical students, as indicated by the prevalence of undiagnosed and uncontrolled hypertension in this specific population. In this cross-sectional design, senior medical students were invited to interview their respective adult first-degree relatives for the following factors: age, body mass index (BMI), smoking and history of diabetes or any cardiovascular disease, as well as the existence of diagnosed hypertension. Subsequently, students were instructed to measure the blood pressure (BP) of their relatives twice with 5 minutes interval. In case if hypertension is detected (average systolic BP≥140 mmHg and/or average diastolic BP≥90 mmHg), relatives were analyzed either as undiagnosed or uncontrolled hypertension, according to the absence or existence of hypertension in their history, respectively. Comparisons between different sub-groups regarding demographic and clinical factors were made using Chi-Square test and a multivariate logistic regression was used to analyze these factors as predictors for having undiagnosed or uncontrolled hypertension. We included 770 relatives (36.4% females, 16.3% aged≥60) of 82 (57.7%) total students’ participations. Hypertension was detected in 246 (31.9%) relatives, with higher proportions in older (up to 56%, p<0.001), obese (43.2%, p<0.001) and non-diabetic subjects (47.4%, p<0.001) and no difference across gender (p=0.093), marital (p=0.712) or smoking status (p=0.555). The prevalence of undiagnosed hypertension in the total study population was 14.4% (111 cases); while that of known hypertension was 16.9% (130 cases), among which 61.9% cases of uncontrolled hypertension. Predictors for undiagnosed hypertension were age<40 (p=0.004), current smoking (OR=1.96; 95% CI [1.08, 3.58]; p=0.028), absence of diabetes (OR=3.45; 95% CI [1.96, 6.25]; p<0.001) and absence of other cardiac diseases (OR=8.33; 95% CI [2.33, 25.0]; p=0.001); while none of the investigated factors showed to be a significant predictor for uncontrolled hypertension. There is an insufficient level of awareness and education among the family members of medical students, as demonstrated by the high prevalence of both undiagnosed and uncontrolled hypertension. The typical profile associated with the lowest level of awareness in this specific population is that of the young smoker with no history of diabetes or cardiac disease. Healthcare professionals should have a significant contribution in raising the levels of awareness and education in their close circle.