Trends in population blood pressure and prevalence, awareness, treatment and control of hypertension among older persons: The 2006  2015 National Health and Morbidity Survey in Malaysia

• Published in: PloS one 2020-01, Vol.15 (9)
• Main Authors: Bee Kiau Ho, Mohd Azahadi Omar, Rajini Sooryanarayana, Sazlina Shariff Ghazali, Sheleaswani bte Inche Zainal Abidin, Ambigga Krishnapillai, Suthahar Ariaratnam, Noorlaili Mohd Tohit, Nur Liana bt Abdul Majid, Muhammad Fadhli bin Mohd Yusof, Tatsuo Shimosawa
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 1932-6203

Background Hypertension is one of the most important risk factors for cardiovascular diseases. Thus, it is an important public health challenge worldwide. In Malaysia, only a few studies have focused on the trends of hypertension specifically for the aging population. In view of the rapid growth of the elderly population in Malaysia, there is an urgent need to explore the condition of hypertension in this aging population. Hence, the objectives of this study were to determine the trends of population mean systolic and diastolic blood pressure (BP) levels, the prevalence, awareness, treatment and control of hypertension, and its’ associated factors among older persons in two cross-sectional national surveys that were conducted in 2006 and 2015 in Malaysia. Methods This was a subanalysis of secondary data collected from the two cross-sectional national population-based surveys conducted in Malaysia in 2006 and 2015. Adults aged 60 and older who had participated in these two surveys were included in the study. Results A total of 4954 (2295 males and 2659 females) and 3790 (1771 males and 2019 females) respondents completed the hypertension module surveys in 2006 and 2015, respectively. The mean age of the respondents was 68.5±6.9 years in 2006 and 68.6±7.1 years in 2015 and the difference was not significant. The prevalence of hypertension significantly reduced from 73.8% in 2006 to 69.2% in 2015 (p