A Cross Sectional Study on Hypertension and Tobacco Consumption in the Rural Adult Population of Kamrup, Assam

INTRODUCTION Tobacco consumption is a major source of mortality and morbidity in India. Overwhelming evidence supports the conclusion that cigarette smoking causes various adverse cardiovascular events and acts synergistically with hypertension and dyslipidemia to increase the risk of coronary heart disease Prevalence of smokeless tobacco (ST) consumption in India is around 20 %. The prevalence of tobacco consumption in rural areas of Assam according to NFHS 4 among men and women 64 % and 20.3 %. The present study is conducted to assess the tobacco consumption association with hypertension among the rural adult population of Kamrup, Assam Objectives 1) To assess the prevalence of hypertension among the rural adult population of Kamrup district, Assam.2) To assess the association of tobacco consumption with hypertension. Methodology A community based cross sectional study was conducted in the rural area of Kamrup district, Assam for a Period of one year ( August 2015- July 2016). Adults aged 30 years and above is included in the study after taking informed consent, who have no acute illness and who were not pregnant. Subjects were interviewed using pre designed pre tested proforma. A total of 870 respondents were interviewed from 12 randomly selected villages. Ethical clearance obtained from Institutional Ethics Committee. Data presented in the form of table, bar diagram& pie diagram. Data analysis done by using INSTAT GRAPH PAD, and a p value of less than 0.05 is taken as significant. RESULTS The study shows, majority, 252 (28.96 %) respondents were normotensive, followed by 240 (27.58 %) were pre hypertensives, and least number of respondents i. e 180 ( 20.68 %) were hypertensive with stage 2. In the present study, 45.63 % as tobacco non users and 54.37 % as tobacco users. Among tobacco users, 17.93 % were smokeless tobacco consumer, 19.43 % were current smokers, 12.87 % were ex- smokers and 4.14 % were using mixed variety. Prevalence of hypertension was highest 53.25 % among the smokers, followed by 47.22 % among the mixed variety users. The prevalence of hypertension was least, 39.29 %, among tobacco non users. The association of tobacco consumption and hypertension is statistically significant. Tobacco, Hypertension, Coronary heart disease, Kamrup, Assam