title: Prevalence of hypertension and pre-hypertension in rural women: a report from the villages of West Bengal, a state in the eastern part of India.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To find out the prevalence of hypertension, pre-hypertension and tachycardia among the women in rural areas of West Bengal, identify co-factors associated with the prevalence and contribute to the body of evidence for future health programs to identify at-risk groups.
  
  
  METHODS
  A population-based cross-sectional study was conducted.
  
  
  METHODS
  The study was conducted in remote villages.
  
  
  METHODS
  1186 women participants, aged 18 years or more were included.
  
  
  METHODS
  They were interviewed using standard structured questionnaire. Blood pressure and tachycardia was monitored using digital sphygmomanometer. For each participant, we made two blood pressure measurements with an interval of 48 hours. Data was analysed statistically using SPSS software.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Overall prevalence of hypertension in the study subjects was 24.7% and that of pre-hypertension and tachycardia was 40.8% and 6.4%, respectively. Both hypertension and pre-hypertension were seen to increase with age. Other identified significant factors were use of biomass fuel for cooking, absence of separate kitchen, higher body mass index (BMI), education and average family income.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study suggests quite high prevalence of hypertension as well as pre-hypertension among the women of rural areas. The findings are significant from the women health perspectives. Early detection of pre-hypertensive and hypertensive subjects will help to formulate intervention strategies to allay the spread of cardiovascular diseases.
authors: College of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, Peking University, Beijing, China. anidu14@gmail.com
authors: Anindita
authors: A
authors: Dutta
authors: Manas Ranjan
authors: MR
authors: Ray
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D015992:Body Mass Index; D003296:Cooking / Q000379:methods; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D005648:Fuel Oils / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000145:classification; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology*; D007194:India / Q000453:epidemiology; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008875:Middle Aged; D058246:Prehypertension / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology*; D015995:Prevalence; D012307:Risk Factors; D012423:Rural Health / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D013610:Tachycardia / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology*; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D005648:Fuel Oils