Prevalence, awareness, treatment and control of hypertension in Malaysia: a national study of 16,440 subjects.
METHODS
A cross-sectional study was conducted in all states of Malaysia to determine the prevalence, awareness, treatment and control of hypertension. A stratified two-stage cluster sampling design with proportional allocation was used.


METHODS
Trained nurses obtained two blood pressure measurements from each subject. Hypertension was defined as mean systolic blood pressure >140 mmHg, diastolic blood pressure >90 mmHg, or a self-reported diagnosis of hypertension and taking antihypertensive medication. All data were analysed using Stata 9.2 software and took the complex survey design into account. A two-sided P-value of <0.05 was considered to be statistically significant.


RESULTS
The overall prevalence of hypertension for subjects aged 15 years was 27.8% (95% confidence interval (CI) 26.9-28.8). The prevalence of hypertension was significantly higher in males (29.6%, 95% CI 28.3-31.0) compared with females (26.0%, 95% CI 25.0-27.1). Multivariate logistic regression showed that the odds of having hypertension increased with increasing age, in males, in subjects with a family history of hypertension, with increasing body mass index, in non-smokers and with decreasing levels of education. Only 34.6% of the subjects with hypertension were aware of their hypertensive status, and 32.4 were taking antihypertensive medication. Amongst the latter group, only 26.8% had their blood pressure under control. The prevalence of hypertension amongst those aged 30 years has increased from 32.9% in 1996 to 40.5% in 2004.


CONCLUSIONS
In Malaysia, the prevalence of hypertension is high, but levels of awareness, treatment and control are low. There is an urgent need for a comprehensive integrated population-based intervention programme to ameliorate the growing problem of hypertension in Malaysians.
Rampal
L
L
Faculty of Medicine and Health Science, Universiti Putra Malaysia Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia. dr_rampal1@hotmail.com
Rampal
S
S
Azhar
M Z
MZ
Rahman
A R
AR
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D017677:Age Distribution; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001794:Blood Pressure; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005006:Ethnicity; D005260:Female; D015438:Health Behavior; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000453:epidemiology*; D008296:Malaysia / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015995:Prevalence; D012307:Risk Factors; D017678:Sex Distribution