A CROSS SECTIONAL STUDY OF CLINICAL PROFILE, MANAGEMENT AND LEVELS OF AWARENESS IN YOUNG HYPERTENSIVES AT A TERTIARY CARE HOSPITAL IN CHENGALPET

Introduction: Hypertension is a condition in which the force of blood against the arterial walls is excessive.Our study aims to describe the clinical profile and management of young hypertensives and to assess the levels of awareness of health care facilities. Material and Methods: This cross sectional study is conducted on young adult hypertensives 20-40 years of age attending the Out Patient Department of General Medicine,KarpagaVinayaga Institute of Medical Sciences and Research Centre, Chinnakolambakkam. Study duration is about 6 months. Young adults (males as well as females) in the age group of 20 to 40 years,who are diagnosed as hypertensives based on with/without comorbidities, visiting the General medicine out patient department who were willing to be a part of the study were included after obtaining an informed consent. Based on this reference and assuming a 95% confidence interval, 5% the minimum required sample size were 112 ~ 120.Data were collected and entered in Microsoft excel 2007. According to the data collected, appropriate statistical tests like Chi-square test was used. Results: In our study mean age of the study participants were 38.56±12.34 years. There were about 63.3% males and 36.7% females. About 62.8% were from rural areas and 37.2% from urban areas.Females comparatively had more awareness, treatment and control of hypertension than males. Urban areas and rural areas had around same percentage of awareness, treatment and control of hypertension.Knowledge about risk factors awareness present among 25.9% of the study participants. Around 58.7% checked blood pressure at least once in the past year among the study participants. Conclusion: Headaches were the most common symptom that young people with hypertension presented with when they were diagnosed. Enhanced awareness would assist in the adoption of healthy lifestyle behaviors and highlight the significance of maintaining adherence to medication.