title: The prevalence of hypertension among Croatian hospitalized coronary heart disease patients.
abstract: The aim of this article was to investigate the prevalence of hypertension with selected anthropometric variables in a sample of hospitalized coronary heart disease (CHD) patients in Croatia. This study investigated patients hospitalized in the period of October 1st 2007 until January 7th 2010 because of acute or chronic CHD in various hospitals in Croatia (N = 1,298). Prevalence of hypertension in surveyed patient population was high: 70.1% of participants had raised blood pressure (BP) or previously diagnosed hypertension. Men had statistically significantly higher mean diastolic BP values than women (78.91 +/- 8.97 vs. 77.12 +/- 10.61 mmHg, p = 0.011). Prevalence of hypertension was statistically significantly more frequent in women (80.6% vs. 65.8%, p < 0.001). Hypertension still represents an important problem among hospitalized Croatian CHD patients. Its prevalence, unfortunately, continues to increase in this population, suggesting that there is still great potential for improvement of preventive cardiology standards and measures that have already been undertaken.
authors.affiliation: University of Zagreb, Dubrava University Hospital, Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Cardiology, Zagreb, Croatia. vrazic@gmail.com
authors.forename: Hrvoje
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Vrazić
authors.forename: Jozica
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Sikić
authors.forename: Tomo
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Lucijanić
authors.forename: Miroslav
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Raguz
authors.forename: Antica
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Romić
authors.forename: Nediljko
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Jukić
authors.forename: Janko
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Grman
authors.forename: Aleksandar
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Knezević
authors.forename: Mario
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: ivanusa
authors.forename: Mijo
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bergovec
mesh_terms: D003327:Coronary Disease / Q000503:physiopathology*; D017523:Croatia / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D006760:Hospitalization; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000453:epidemiology*; D008297:Male; D015995:Prevalence