Awareness, treatment and control of hypertension in 640 000 adults in eastern China / 中华流行病学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective@#To understand the awareness, treatment, and control of hypertension in residents aged 35-75 years in eastern China, analyze the treatment mode for antihypertensive agents while identifying those factors affecting awareness, treatment and control.@*Methods@#The data collected in eastern China from the China Patient-Centered Evaluative Assessment of Cardiac Events (PEACE) Million Persons Project were used to obtain the information about the awareness, treatment and control of hypertension in the residents and the antihypertensive medication treatment mode in this area. Multilevel mixed-effects model was used to explore the association of the demographic characteristics of hypertension patients with the rates of awareness, treatment and control of hypertension.@*Results@#A total of 640 539 participants aged 35-75 years, mean age (56.9±9.6) years, were included in the analysis, women accounted for 59.7% and 318 741 (49.8%) of the participants suffered from hypertension. Among those hypertensive patients, 46.5% were aware of their condition, 38.1% were taking prescribed antihypertensive medications, and 11.1% had achieved the control of hypertension, the differences were significant among provinces, between urban area and rural area and among different demographical groups. Calcium-channel blockers was the most commonly used medication (45.1%), and 78 735 hypertension patients (86.2%) took only one type of medication. Older age, higher household income, higher level of education, and histories of myocardial infarction, stroke and diabetes were associated with higher awareness, treatment and control of hypertension (P<0.05).@*Conclusions@#The rates of awareness, treatment and control of hypertension were low in residents in eastern China. The differences in hypertension management were significant among provinces and between urban area and rural area. Further efforts are needed to enhance the system of hypertension prevention, screening, diagnosis and treatment.