Neglected Cases of Hypertension in Rural Indonesia: A Cross-Sectional Study of Prevalence and Risk Factors on Adult Population

Hypertension (HTN) is a significant health problem because of the high risk of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. In rural areas, awareness and health facilities are limited, and report on the prevalence and related risk factors of hypertension is scarce. This study aimed to investigate the prevalence and associated factors of hypertension in the rural population in Indonesia. A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted to adult subjects from a rural population in Jombang, East Java, Indonesia. Data were collected by interviews to obtain socio-demographic characteristic and risk factors. Blood pressure measurements were performed using a mercury sphygmomanometer. We enrolled a total of 121 adult subjects. The prevalence of hypertension was 38.8%. Among hypertensive patients, 83% of them do not seek nor receive any treatment. The prevalent risk factors of hypertension in this study were age more than 40 years old (OR=4.1; 95%CI:1.8-8.9), abdominal obesity (OR=2.7; 95%CI: 1.2-6.01), and smoking (OR=3.2; 95%CI: 1.4-7.1). From our study, the prevalence of hypertension was high in rural adult population, and most of them did not receive treatments. Smoking and abdominal obesity are two risk factors that can be modified as one of the prevention strategies. These phenomena requires the attention of health workers.