• Aline Pinto Marques, Célia Landmann Szwarcwald, Paulo Roberto Borges de Souza-Junior, Déborah Carvalho Malta, and Dalia Elena Romero Montilla.
• PhD. Assistant Researcher, Laboratory of Health Information, Institute of Health Communication and Scientific and Technological Information, Fundação Oswaldo Cruz (Fiocruz), Rio de Janeiro (RJ), Brazil.
• Sao Paulo Med J. 2019 Jan 1; 137 (4): 312321312-321.

BackgroundHypertension is a serious global public health problem that affects a large part of the Brazilian adult population and can cause limitations and losses of quality of life.ObjectiveThe objective of this study was to analyze the association of hypertension and its correlated limitations, with sociodemographic and epidemiological factors.Design And SettingCross-sectional study analyzing information on 44,271 adults (30 years or older) from the Brazilian National Health Survey of 2013.MethodsThe prevalence of hypertension and the degree of limitation of the patients' activities associated with hypertension, according to sociodemographic characteristics, anthropometric measurements and lifestyles, were calculated for both sexes. To analyze the strength of association, bivariate and multivariate Poisson regression were used.ResultsHypertension was the most prevalent risk factor among Brazilian adults aged 30 years or older (40.7%). It was strongly associated with the aging process (prevalence ratio, PR 3.51), obesity (PR 1.73), heart disease (PR 1.67) and stroke (PR 1.86). Furthermore, limitations associated with hypertension were more prevalent among those with comorbidities from noncommunicable diseases relating to hypertension complications (stroke PR 1.47; heart disease PR 1.69) and with incomplete elementary education (PR 1.19).ConclusionsThis study showed sociodemographic inequality in the prevalence of hypertension, especially in the population with some degree of limitation associated with hypertension. It showed that improvements in access to primary care services for controlling hypertension at its initial stages are essential in order to avoid comorbidities of greater severity and limitations and losses of quality of life, especially among socially disadvantaged people.

18 keywords...

hide…