Abstract

Background: Hypertension is a worldwide public health problem and is increasing day by day especially in developing countries like Pakistan. In spite of such high prevalence rates, awareness about hypertension is dismally low in developing countries and hence it leads to many preventable complications including Cardiovascular Diseases & strokes.

Aim: To get an idea about level of awareness of being hypertensive, in patients presenting in Central Emergency Department (CED) of Fatima Memorial Hospital Lahore.

Methods:Blood Pressure was measured using standard sphygmomanometer and a questionnaire was filled in to know the level of awareness among participants and to know the reasons of being unaware about this problem.

Results: Out of200 cases of hypertension, 64(32%) were males while 136 (68%) were femalesout of which, 127 females were housewives. 175(87.5%) of these 200 cases, were known hypertensivewhile 25(12.5%) were not aware of their being hypertensive.Main reasons of being unaware were lack of symptoms (44%), unawareness of hypertension(16%) and few cases due to busy routines. Unawareness was mainly in males, younger-middle age group while family history does not show any effect on its awareness.While nonworking females were more vigilant due to home ridden non busy life seeking medical advice even on minor ailments as compared to males and working females.

Conclusion: Unawareness of younger to middle aged males, may be explained upon their being busy as well as unremarkable symptoms in early times of HTN.

Keywords: Hypertension, cardiovascular disease, stroke