Abstract
Background:
Little evidence exists regarding the magnitude of contribution of risk factors associated with hypertension in India. Determination of potentially modifiable risk factors is necessary to focus prevention strategies.
Design:
Age-matched case–control study.
Methods:
A total of 350 hypertensive cases and 350 controls of both sexes in the age group 20–65 years. Hypertension was defined according to JNC VII criteria. Adjusted odds ratio (OR) and population attributable risk percentage (PAR %) for hypertension were calculated.
Results:
In multivariate analysis, tobacco users (either tobacco chewing/smoking or both) (adjusted OR 5.1, 95% CI 3.6–7.3), tobacco chewing (adjusted OR 3.2, 95% CI 2.2–4.6), smoking (adjusted OR 2.9, 95% CI 1.9–4.4), and alcohol consumption (adjusted OR 1.5, 95% CI 1.1–2.2) was the strongest determinants of hypertension. A dose–response relation was found between the number of cigarettes smoked per day (χ2 for trend = 26.07; p < 0.0001) and the amount of alcohol consumption per day (χ2 for trend = 24.26; p < 0.0001) and the risk of hypertension. PARs were 70.3% (95% CI 63.0–77.5) for tobacco use, 45.3% (95% CI 37.1–53.4) for tobacco chewing, 31.5% (95% CI 21.3–40.9) for smoking, and 33.6% (95% CI 22.9–44.4) for alcohol consumption.
Conclusion:
Our results indicate that incident hypertension cases are largely attributable to the habit of tobacco use and alcohol consumption. Therefore, changing these selected lifestyle factors needs to be prioritized as a major strategy for reducing incidence of hypertension in our population.
Keywords
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