P190 POST-COVID INFECTION AS AN INDEPENDENT PREDICTOR OF DIASTOLIC HYPERTENSION IN AFRICAN POPULATION: SUDAN MMM 2022

Introduction: Several clinical studies reported a mutual relationship between coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and high blood pressure (BP) readings. It was established that hypertension is associated with increased COVID-19 severity, morbidity, and mortality; however, its effect on the future blood pressure reading and development of hypertension is not apparent. Methods: This is a cross-sectional analytic study based on MMM 2022, Sudan data. The targeted population was >18 years old. Blood pressure was measured on 3 consecutive measures. Participants who had a history of hypertension were excluded. Systolic hypertension was defined if systolic blood pressure (SBP) ≥ 140 mmHg, and diastolic hypertension was defined if diastolic blood pressure (DBP) ≥ 90 mmHg. Continuous data was presented in mean and standard deviation, and categorical data was presented in frequency and percentages. Logistic regression models (unadjusted and adjusted) were used to predict high blood pressure readings. Results: A total of 14,402, (42.92%) were male and the mean age was (35.1±14.7 years) patients were included in this study. The prevalence of associated medical conditions, diabetes, heart attack, heart failure, arrhythmia, and stroke were 6.3%, 1.12%, 1.5%, 0.8%, 4.8%, and 1.1% respectively. The mean SBP was (118.88±17.42) mmHg, and the mean DBP was (78.89±11.0) mmHg. Furthermore, the COVID-19 infection affected (4.48%) of this study population. They were older (36.8±12.2 vs. 35.0±14.8, p=0.003), more frequently males (56.1% vs. 42.3%, p <0.001), and diabetic (8.8% vs. 6.2%, p=0.006). The incidence of systolic hypertension and diastolic hypertension, in the population, was (10.98%) and (14.57%) respectively. The post-COVID patients had a significantly higher mean DBP (80.0±10.7 vs. 78.8±11.0, p=0.008) but not the SBP. Using unadjusted and adjusted logistic regression, the odd ratio is significant for predicting high DBP post-COVID infection (table 1). Conclusions: Post-COVID infection carries a huge burden on healthy individuals. After adjusting for the possible confounders, post-COVID-19 infection was an independent predictor of diastolic hypertension in the African population.