Prevalence of Undiagnosed Hypertension among Medical Doctors in University of Benin Teaching Hospital, Edo State.

Abstract

AIM 
To determine the prevalence of undiagnosed hypertension among medical Doctors in UBTH in order to 
remind the doctor of the need to care for himself also.
METHODS
A descriptive cross sectional study was conducted among all categories of medical doctors who were in 
the employ of UBTH as at 2015 and were neither known hypertensives nor were they on 
antihypertensive drugs. Demographic characteristics, Blood pressure and body mass index (BMI) data 
were obtained using standard instruments.
RESULTS
There were 280 respondents. Among them, 204 (72.9%) were males while 76 (27.1%) were females. The 
age range was 24-61 years with modal age group of 30-39 years as they formed 154 (55.0%) of the total 
respondents. Among all respondents 76 (27.1%) were Consultants, 68 (24.3%) were Senior Registrars, 87 
(31.1%) were Registrars while 49 (17.5%) were House Officers.
Out of the 280 respondents, 92 (32.9%) had normal blood pressure (120/80mmHg), 134 (47.9%) were 
pre-hypertensive (> 120/80 and < 140/90) while 21 (7.5%) had systolic and diastolic hypertension 
(>140/90mmHg). Only 2 (0.7%) respondents had isolated systolic hypertension while 31 (11%) had 
isolated diastolic hypertension.
CONCLUSION
From this study, 47.9% of Medical doctors were pre-hypertensive while 19.2% had undiagnosed 
hypertension