Blood Pressure Levels and Associated Lifestyles Practices among Spouses of Patients with Hypertension Attending the General Outpatient Clinic of a Teaching Hospital in Lagos, Nigeria.

BACKGROUND: Hypertension is the commonest cardiovascular risk factor in the world. In Nigeria there have been rapid changes to a more western lifestyle and this is strongly associated with hypertension. Many spouses share similar lifestyle practices. The aim was to examine the association between elevated blood pressure and lifestyle practices among spouses of hypertensive patients.

METHODS: In a hospital based cross-sectional descriptive study at the General Outpatient Clinic of Lagos University Teaching Hospital, two hundred and thirty spouses of hypertensive patients were recruited by systematic sampling. An interviewer administered questionnaire adapted from WHO STEP instrument. Blood pressure was measured with a standardized mercury sphygmomanometer.

RESULTS: The mean age of respondents was 52.3 ± 9.73 years. The mean systolic and diastolic blood pressures were 128.45 ± 19.47 mmHg and 82.68 ± 11.71 mmHg respectively. The proportion of respondents who had elevated systolic or diastolic blood pressure was 35.2 %. Proportion of current smokers was 3.9% and 3.5 % of respondents had excessive consumption of alcohol in the preceding seven days. Up to 43.9% of respondents had taken alcoholic beverage within the previous 12 months. About half (45.7%) of respondents engaged in moderate physical activity that lasted for at least 150 minutes per week. There was a statistically significant association between, the following factors and elevated systolic blood pressure among respondents; alcohol consumption within the past 12 months (c2= 6.738, p= 0.009); higher frequency of extra salt consumption (c2 = 4.816, p = 0.028); and red meat intake > 14times/week (c2 = 10.673, p = 0.014), with tobacco smoking (c2=6.202, p=0.037) and higher frequency of extra salt (c2 = 7.416, p=0.006) being significantly associated with elevated diastolic blood pressure. On the other hand, daily fruit intake (c2= 4.158, p=0.042) and vigorous physical activity >75min (c2=5.403, p=0.017)were significantly associated with non-elevated blood pressure among respondents.

CONCLUSION: From this study, it can be concluded that more than one third of spouses of patients with hypertension are likely to have elevated blood pressure. It can also be concluded that elevated blood pressure among spouses of patients with hypertension is mostly associatedwithlack of vigorous physical activity >75min per week, recent consumption of alcohol, current smoking status, lack of daily fruit intake, higher salt consumption (addition of extra salt to served meal) and increased red meat consumption. Thus, this study has shown the importance of spousal case finding for both hypertension and adverse lifestyle practices, as a vital component of comprehensive care offered by family physicians caring for patients with hypertension.