P140 PREVALENCE OF HYPERTENSION IN A RURAL COMMUNITY IN THE FEDERAL CAPITAL TERRITORY ABUJA (GBESSA) NORTH CENTRAL NIGERIA

Background: High Blood pressure, once rare, is rapidly becoming a major public health burden in sub-Saharan Africa. This has been attributed to acculturation of the populace who are rapidly adopting modern lifestyle changes. Aim This study aimed to describe the prevalence and identify risk factors for hypertension in rural community in the Federal capital territory in Nigeria. Methods A cross sectional survey of 491 households with 1,739 adults aged 18 years and above was carried out. Information about health and lifestyle was obtained from structured questionnaire interviews, followed by assessment of blood pressure (BP) and anthropometry. Results: There were 18.1% (95% confidence interval (CI), 16.0-20.6% participants with hypertension (defined as a systolic BP-140, diastolic BP-90mmHg or on antihypertensives medication). This prevalence of Hypertension was found to rise with age. Between the sexes males recorded a higher prevalence of 19.6% compared to 17.4%: females but this was not statistically ×2 P-value =0.34. Single and widowed subjects recorded high prevalence of 32.2% and 30.0% of Hypertension while students had low rate of 5.6%. The prevalence of Hypertension was 20.5% among farmers.Whereas, obesity (measured by WHR), alcohol intake, cigarette smoking, and family history of hypertension had no valid statistical evidence, chewing tobacco/ snuff, previously diagnosed diabetes mellitus or family history of diabetes showed statistically significant differences. Conclusion: This findings underscore the need for public health campaign at community levels to prevent increasing blood pressure and it's sequelae. This will involve campaigns to maintain the age- long tradition of exercise, avoidance of smoking, alcohol and weight maintenance.