Background: Hypertension is defined as two or more readings of systolic blood pressure measurement of 130 mm Hg or higher or diastolic blood pressure measurement of 80 mm Hg or higher. Symptoms of hypertension (HTN) are often not detectable at early stages and because of this many people with the disease are mostly left undiagnosed. Undiagnosed HTN is the one that increases the risk of complications such as renal failure, heart failure, myocardial infarction, stroke and premature death. There is no report concerning undiagnosed hypertension in the area. This study is aimed to assess prevalence of undiagnosed hypertension and its associated factors among adult peoples.Method: Community based Cross-sectional study design was conducted. English version questionnaire was used to collect data from 574 households. The data was collected and analyzed by SPSS version.23. The association between dependent and independent variables was tested by using multivariate regression at P-value less than 0.05 and 95% CI.Result: Out of 590 participants, 108 (18.8%) respondents were cigarette smokers and 143 (24.9%) were khat chewers. About 106 (18.5%) of respondents have sedentary lifestyle. A total of 260 (45.3%) of respondents were identified as having undiagnosed hypertension. Respondents having sedentary life style had about 2.24 time’s higher risk of undiagnosed HTN than those who didn’t have sedentary life style. BMI, sedentary life style, cigarettes smoking, health seeking behavior, dietary habit and monthly income were significant predictors of undiagnosed HTN.Conclusion: Based on the identified high prevalence of undiagnosed hypertension, the finding suggests awareness creation for community members about undiagnosed hypertension, its symptoms and ways of managing it.
Undiagnosed Hypertension and Its Associated Factors among Adult People Living in Southern Ethiopia: Evidence from Gunchire Woreda of Gurage Zone
