Mashhud Zia Chowdhury
Ibrahim Cardiac Hospital and Research Institute, Bangladesh
Title: Prevalence, awareness and control of hypertension in Bangladesh.
Biography
Biography: Mashhud Zia Chowdhury
Abstract
Bangladesh has been elevated from the low income status to lower middle income nation last year. According to the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, the per-capita income will increase by 11.39% from $1316 in 2014-15 to $1,466 this financial year. Communicable diseases have also been reasonably in good control. Both of these lead to epidemiological transition from communicable to non-communicable disease (NCD). Hypertension (HTN) is one of the ‘fatal four’ NCD i.e. Cardiovascular, Cancer, Chronic Respiratory Disease and Diabetes. The prevalence of HTN in Bangladesh is showing an increasing trend. A meta-analysis showed pooled HTN prevalence in Bangladesh within each 5 year time period was, 11% in 1995-2000, 12.8% in 2001-2005, and 15.3% in 2006-2010. According to a recent multilevel analytic survey, overall age standardized prevalence of pre-hypertension and HTN were 27.1% and 24.4%, respectively. HTN was found more common in elderly (ranging 40-65%) and urban population. Low awareness of disease is common in low-income and low educated population. According to NCD risk factors survey, only half of the hypertensive patients were aware of their illness and 33% had never measured their blood pressure in life time. Moreover, hypertension is largely untreated especially in rural area and only 41% were undergoing treatment. Non-adherence to treatment was very high, only 31.4% had their hypertension controlled. On the contrary of present guide line, Beta-blocker was found to be the highest prescribed drug. Strategies for early detection, awareness buildup and adherence to treatment are urgently necessary to halt the growing disease burden of hypertension.