title: Prevalence, awareness, treatment and control of hypertension in Tibetan monks from Gansu Province, Northwest China.
abstract: Tibetan monks are a special group in life style and diet customs. We have little information of hypertension about them. Therefore, the objective of this study was to investigate the information on the prevalence, awareness, treatment and control of hypertension in these populations. A cross-sectional study of hypertension was carried out in 984 monks and 1042 Tibetan residents' controls in the same area. All the subjects were selected for interview, and physical examination involved blood pressure (BP) measurement. The overall prevalence of hypertension in monks was significantly lower than those in local residents (19.3% versus 34.1%; p < 0.01). The rates of awareness, treatment and control in monks were also lower than those in local residents (9.5% versus 16.9%, 4.2% versus 13.2% and 1.6% versus 4.5%; p < 0.01 for each). These findings indicated that a low prevalence of hypertension among monks aged 18 years and over in Gannan Tibetan autonomous district of Gansu province in China. We concluded that the relatively healthy diet and ways of life in monks were the major contributing factors to the lower prevalence of hypertension. However, the awareness, treatment and control rates of hypertension were also low. The possible reasons were most likely due to the difficult access to quality medical care and poor health education.
authors.affiliation: a Department of Cardiology , West China Hospital of Sichuan University , Cheng Du , PR China .|b Department of Cardiology , Gan Su Provincial Hospital , Lan Zhou , PR China , and.
authors.forename: Xinghui
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: b Department of Cardiology , Gan Su Provincial Hospital , Lan Zhou , PR China , and.
authors.forename: Hui
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Cai
authors.affiliation: b Department of Cardiology , Gan Su Provincial Hospital , Lan Zhou , PR China , and.
authors.forename: Jin
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: He
authors.affiliation: c Department of Cardiology, Haus Gilead I , Bielefeld , Germany.
authors.forename: Devasundaram
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Ramachandran
authors.affiliation: b Department of Cardiology , Gan Su Provincial Hospital , Lan Zhou , PR China , and.
authors.forename: Ping
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Xie
authors.affiliation: b Department of Cardiology , Gan Su Provincial Hospital , Lan Zhou , PR China , and.
authors.forename: Yan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: b Department of Cardiology , Gan Su Provincial Hospital , Lan Zhou , PR China , and.
authors.forename: Hongjing
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: b Department of Cardiology , Gan Su Provincial Hospital , Lan Zhou , PR China , and.
authors.forename: Yan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: b Department of Cardiology , Gan Su Provincial Hospital , Lan Zhou , PR China , and.
authors.forename: Yan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Qiao
authors.affiliation: a Department of Cardiology , West China Hospital of Sichuan University , Cheng Du , PR China .
authors.forename: Qing
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Zhang
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000959:Antihypertensive Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005247:Feeding Behavior / Q000208:ethnology*; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice / Q000208:ethnology*; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000208:ethnology / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy; D008019:Life Style / Q000208:ethnology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D065830:Monks; D015995:Prevalence; D065840:Protective Factors; D011897:Random Allocation; D018609:Tibet / Q000453:epidemiology
chemical_list: D000959:Antihypertensive Agents
keywords: Awareness; Tibetan monks; hypertension; prevalence; treatment