Prevalence and determinants of hypertension among Bhutanese monks in Tashi-Choe-Dzong, Thimphu, Bhutan

Abstract

Hypertension or high blood pressure is one of the leading causes of mortality and morbidity in the World, as reported by the WHO in 2004 that 7.5 million deaths are solely attributable to the hypertension. Bhutan, a country of 0.7 million people, reported the current rate (prevalence) of hypertension at 310 per 10,000 population (AHB-2010). As a step towards assessing the prevalence of hypertension and risk factors associated with hypertension, 138 monks at the Tashi-Choe-Dzong, age 20 years and above were recruited to participate in this study. The clinical parameters, i.e. blood pressure measurement and BMI measurement were undertaken on the surveyed monks on this cross sectional study. Analysis of the data revealed that the prevalence rate was 10.2%. Age, number of years of monkhood, monthly income and earlier history of hypertension were found significantly associated with the development of high blood pressure with p-value at α <0.05. Since majority of the studied subjects are in the age group between 20-30 years, the observed prevalence rate was quite low. Moreover the knowledge level of the studied subjects was found very low with 44.9% possessing poor knowledge and 55.1% possessing just fair knowledge on Hypertension