๐ชช : DOI:ย 10.5281/zenodo.17901765
๐ : Nexus Global Research Journal of Medical Sciences (NGRJMS) Volume-1, Issue-1 (Page : 20 – 38)
ABSTRACT:
Background: There is a growing prevalence of systemic hypertension mediated organ damage. This study assessed the awareness of hypertension and target organ damage (TOD) among hypertensives aged 30 years and above attending the outpatient clinic of Dalhatu Araf Specialist Hospital, Lafia, Nigeria. Methodology: This was a cross-sectional study. Systematic random sampling technique was used in selecting 261 respondents with systemic hypertension aged 30 years and above. Data was collected through interviewer administered questionnaire. They were screened for left ventricular hypertrophy, hypertensive retinopathy and kidney damage. Statistical package for Social Sciences version 23 was used to analyze the data. Statistical significance was set at p< 0.05 Results: The mean age of participants was 50.29 ยฑ 12.73 years, with females making up 173 (66.3%) of the sample. Awareness of hypertension was 36.0% (94), while awareness of target organ damage was 42.1% (110). Hypertension had been diagnosed in 40.6% (106) of participants for less than five years. Additionally, 1.1% (3) smoked cigarettes, 2.3% (6) consumed significant amounts of alcohol, and 28.0% (73) were obese. The prevalence of microalbuminuria and target organ damage was 43.3% (113) and 77% (201), respectively. No significant association was found between awareness of hypertension and the presence of left ventricular hypertrophy, kidney damage, or retinopathy, indicating that awareness alone does not effectively reduce the occurrence of these complications.
Conclusion: Awareness of systemic hypertension and target organ damage is still low. There is urgent need for primary care physicians to raise awareness by increasing effort at giving proper education and counselling on the complications of systemic hypertension, importance of blood pressure control and adherence to treatment plan. This study can also serve as a basis for longitudinal studies on the relationship between awareness of systemic hypertension and development of target organ damage in patients with systemic hypertension.
Keywords: Awareness, hypertension, target organ damage, left ventricular hypertrophy, microalbuminuria, retinopathy