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Prevalence and Risk Factors of Hypertension Among Young Adults in Albania

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Abstract

Introduction

Hypertension is one of the major risk factors for cardiovascular disease and the leading cause of death worldwide. Hypertension was defined as systolic or diastolic blood pressure according to Joint National Committee 7 (JNC7) and 2017 American College of Cardiology/American Hypertension Association (ACC/AHA) rules.

Aim

The aims of this study was to determine the difference in hypertension prevalence and its risk factors using ACC/AHA rule, and compared its result with JNC7 rule.

Methods

Data were collected using two-stage stratified cluster sample of households from 2017/18 Albanian Demographic and Health Survey. Data were analyzed using the descriptive and multivariate logistic regression model.

Results

Among 15,003 respondents aged 15–49 years, the overall prevalence of hypertension was 63.48% and 16.24%, as per ACC/AHA and JNC7 rules, respectively with an absolute increase of prevalence by 47.3% (CI 46.4–48.2%). According to the ACC/AHA rule, in most of the categories of the respondents, the prevalence of hypertension was 40% higher compared with the JNC7 rule. In multivariate analysis, age, education, richest respondents, number of living children (≥ 3), health insurance and gender had significant (p < 0.05) impact on hypertension for both rules. Besides, the middle and richer wealth index, religion, and physically active work had also significant (p < 0.05) impact on hypertension for JNC7 rules.

Conclusions

Newly established ACC/AHA rule led to a significant increase in the proportion of hypertension among the Albanian populations. Similarly, there was a significant difference in the impact of some socioeconomic factors on hypertension as per both rules. Implementation of the prevention and control programs of hypertension are required to increase the awareness of the bad impact of hypertension.

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Acknowledgements

Authors acknowledge the Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) Program for providing data. The authors are grateful to the Statistics Discipline, Khulna University, Khulna-9208, Bangladesh, where this study is conducted. Authors are also thankful to authors of different articles are used in this study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Statistics Discipline, Khulna University, Khulna, 9208, Bangladesh

    Benojir Ahammed, Md. Maniruzzaman & Ashis Talukder

  2. Department of Statistics, Rajshahi University, Rajshahi, Bangladesh

    Md. Maniruzzaman

  3. Jhikargacha Upazila Health Complex, Jashore, Bangladesh

    Farzana Ferdausi

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  1. Benojir Ahammed
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Correspondence to Benojir Ahammed.

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This research received no specific grant from any funding agency, commercial entity or not-for-profit organization.

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The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.

Availability of data and material

The data is available at: https://dhsprogram.com/data/available-datasets.cfm.

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Authors’ contributions

Benojir Ahammed designed the design of this study, after collecting and checking the data, performed the statistical analysis and write the manuscript; Md. Maniruzzaman checked the data and edited the manuscript; Ashis Talukder edited the manuscript; Farzana Ferdausi review relavent literature and write the manuscript. All authors have read and approved the final manuscript.

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Ahammed, B., Maniruzzaman, M., Talukder, A. et al. Prevalence and Risk Factors of Hypertension Among Young Adults in Albania. High Blood Press Cardiovasc Prev 28, 35–48 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40292-020-00419-5

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