P010 HYPERTENSION CONTROL CASCADE AMONG OLD AND VERY OLD POPULATION OF NEPAL: A FRAMEWORK TO IMPROVE HYPERTENSION AWARENESS, TREATMENT, AND CONTROL

The older population of Nepal increased from 6% to 10% from 1971 to 2021 census. The prevalence of NCDs increases with the increase in age. This study aimed to assess the prevalence and predictors of hypertension, awareness, treatment and control rate in Nepal. Nepal demographic and health survey data 2022, a nationally representative survey data was used for this analysis. 1716 (unweighted sample) participants aged 60 years and above were used for this analysis. Multivariate logistic regression was used to assess the predictors (sex, education, place of residence, province and wealth quintile) of hypertension control cascade. All the inferential analysis was carried out considering the cluster sampling design. Sample weight was used to estimate the population statistics. P<0.05 were considered statistically significant. Study revealed that 44% participants were hypertensive, among them 60% were aware of their status and 45% were under treatment. Among those who were under treatment, 57% respondents blood pressure were under control (Table 1). The higher prevalence of hypertension was observed among the urban dwellers (49%) compared to rural counterparts (37%) (AOR: 0.65;95%CI:0.52-0.81). By wealth quintile, 55% of the richest quintile population were hypertensive compared to the poorest counterparts (38%) (AOR:1.68;95%CI:1.13-2.50). Study revealed that the dose-response relationship between wealth quintile and hypertension awareness as well as treatment rate. Compared to the poorest, the higher odds of awareness rate were observed among the poor (AOR:2.08(1.19-3.64)), middle quintile (AOR:2.97(1.65-5.36)), richer (AOR:2.50(1.29-4.84)) and richest (AOR:4.05(2.02-8.14)) population. Likewise, compared to the poorest, the higher odds of treatment rate were observed among the poor (AOR:2.47(1.27-4.83)), middle (AOR:2.63(1.41-4.92)), richer (AOR:3.29(1.63-6.65)) and richest (AOR:7.20 (3.43-15.14)) population. The prevalence of hypertension is high among the Nepalese old population with low awareness, treatment and control rate. The gap between awareness and treatment was 15%. The lowest awareness and treatment rate were observed among rural and poorest population need focused, targeted, tailored intervention through integration of NCDs programming with the primary care.