Hypertension in the Elderly, Awareness, Control and Complications Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

Background: Essential hypertension is the term applied to the 95% of cases in which no specific underlying cause can be identified. Increases with advancing age, and affects more than half of all people over the age of 60, including isolated systolic hypertension. Nearly three quarters of people with hypertension live in developing countries where awareness of the disease and access to health care are sometimes inadequate.

Patients and methods: A total of 275 elderly patients 60%(n=165) females,40%(n=110) males, were seen for ( pre-operative elective surgery) medical check-up, who were found to be hypertensive, included in a cross-sectional study, assessing the disease awareness, control, compliance and complications by clinical assessment and laboratory tests . Their ages ranged from 60-83 years (mean age = 68.5).

Results: From the total only 12% (n=33) of patients were found achieving good control Morbidity rate was high. Though hypertension is common in the elderly persons, I noticed the rates of awareness, treatment, and control in these patientswere low, leading to many morbidities especially cardiovascular events and stroke.