Self-reported hypertension in eMbalenhle, Mpumalanga, South Africa: findings from a vulnerability to air pollution assessment

Abstract

The study determined the prevalence of self-reported hypertension and evaluated the relationship between self-reported hypertension and associated risk factors among adults who participated in the 2006 vulnerability to air pollution study in eMbalenhle, Mpumalanga, South Africa. Face-to-face interviews were conducted in September 2006 with the heads of 377 randomly selected households to obtain information on the household status of health and disease risk factors. eMbalenhle data were compared to the published provincial data on variables of interest. Logistic regression analysis was employed to determine associations between self-reported hypertension and individual risk factors. The prevalence of self-reported hypertension (7.0%), arthritis (3.9%), diabetes (3.8%) and asthma (2.2%) were comparable to provincial self-reported disease figures of 9.0%, 3.5%, 2.3% and 3.4%, respectively. self reporting of hypertension increased significantly with age (OR: 1.07; 95% CI: 1.05-1.09; p<0.001), being female (OR: 3.35; 95% CI: 1.84-6.01; p<0.001), and having doctor-diagnosed arthritis (OR: 2.42; 95% CI: 1.12-5.23; p<0.01) and diabetes (OR: 6.00, 95% CI: 2.08-17.26; p<0.01). The study demonstrates that self-reported hypertension and other chronic diseases in eMbalenhle mirrored the general provincial chronic diseases’ patterns despite the poor socio-economic status of this community relative to the province. Self-reported hypertension was strongly related to age, gender, and self-reported arthritis and diabetes.