title: Diagnosis and Control of Hypertension as Indicators of the Level of Awareness Among Relatives of Medical Students in Saudi Arabia.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Patients' awareness plays an important role in the early diagnosis and control of many diseases including hypertension.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To estimate the level of awareness among relatives of medical students by assessing the prevalence of undiagnosed and uncontrolled hypertension.
  
  
  METHODS
  A predefined group of medical students were recruited and properly instructed in order to conduct this cross-sectional study among their respective first-degree adult relatives whom their sociodemographic and medical history were obtained along with their blood pressure readings. According to the absence or presence of hypertension in their history, relatives with high blood pressure were considered as undiagnosed or uncontrolled hypertension, respectively; while those who had normal blood pressure were considered as normal or controlled hypertension, respectively. Comparative analysis of different parameters was carried out between these subgroups.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We included 770 relatives of 82 (57.7 %) total students' participations. The prevalence of undiagnosed hypertension among the total study population was 14.4 % (111 cases). Among participants with previously diagnosed hypertension, 61.9 % were uncontrolled at the time of the study. Predictors for undiagnosed hypertension were age below 40 years, working at the present time in either governmental or private sectors, current smoking, absence of diabetes and cardiac diseases. None of the investigated factors showed to be a significant predictor for uncontrolled hypertension.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  There is insufficient level of awareness among family members of clinically oriented medical students, as demonstrated by the high prevalence of both undiagnosed and uncontrolled hypertension. The most frequent profile associated with the lowest awareness level is that of the young smoking employee with no history of diabetes or cardiac disease.
authors.affiliation: College of Medicine, Taif University, Taif, Saudi Arabia. a.mirza@tu.edu.sa.|Research Center, King Abdullah Medical City, Makkah, Saudi Arabia. a.mirza@tu.edu.sa.
authors.forename: Ahmad A
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6035-9566
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Mirza
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacology, Faculty of Medicine, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt.|Epidemiology and Statistics Department, King Abdullah Medical City Research Center, Mecca, Saudi Arabia.
authors.forename: Soha A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Elmorsy
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001364:Awareness; D001794:Blood Pressure; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005190:Family; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015995:Prevalence; D012307:Risk Factors; D012529:Saudi Arabia / Q000453:epidemiology; D013337:Students, Medical; D016896:Treatment Outcome
keywords: Awareness; Early diagnosis; Hypertension