Socio-Demographic Profile and Symptom Presentation of Young People Diagnosed with Essential Hypertension in Uyo, South-South Nigeria

Hypertension is a chronic medical condition where the systemic arterial blood pressure is elevated. It is taken as blood pressure reading greater than or equals to 140/90 mmHg systolic and greater than or equals to 90 mmHg diastolic. Recently, there is an upsurge in the diagnosis of essential hypertension among young people attending the general outpatient clinic so this generated the interest to study the socio-demographic variables and symptom presentation of these young people diagnosed with hypertension.
Aim: To determine the socio-demographic features of young people diagnosed with essential hypertension and the common clinical features.
Methods: A cross-sectional descriptive study of young people aged 20-44 years diagnosed with essential hypertension over a one year period January –December 2013 at General outpatient department of University of Uyo teaching hospital were recruited into the study. The questionnaire sought information on socio-demographic characteristics and symptoms presented by the respondents. Blood pressure was measured and classified into stage 1 and stage 2 hypertension according to JNC 7.
Results: One hundred and fifty one respondents with essential hypertension were recruited into the study. 62.8% of them had stage 2 hypertension, most of them were in age group 35-39 years n=44 (29.1%), were females n=84 (55.6%). More than half of respondents had tertiary education n=70 (46.4%), traders were more than others in terms of occupation n=46 (30.5%). Common symptoms presented were headache n=106 (70.2%), dizziness n=77 (51.0%) insomnia n=76 (50.3%), palpitation n=88 (58.3%). Insomnia and palpitation were significantly associated with stage 2 hypertension with p value of 0.031 and 0.013 respectively.
Conclusion: Hypertension is becoming common among young people in our facility; insomnia and palpitation are associated with stage 2 hypertension among these young people, so there is need to screen young people that present with these symptoms for high blood pressure.