Untreated hypertension in Russian 35-69 year olds - a cross-sectional study

Background: The Russian Federation has among the highest rates of cardiovascular disease (CVD) in the world and a high rate of untreated hypertension remains an important risk factor. Understanding who is at greatest risk is important to inform approaches to primary prevention. Methods: 2,353 hypert...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Petersen, J, Kontsevaya, A, McKee, M, Kudryavtsev, AV, Malyutina, S, Cook, S, Leon, DA
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: 2020
Subjects:
Online Access:https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10101099/1/journal.pone.0233801.pdf
https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10101099/
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Summary:Background: The Russian Federation has among the highest rates of cardiovascular disease (CVD) in the world and a high rate of untreated hypertension remains an important risk factor. Understanding who is at greatest risk is important to inform approaches to primary prevention. Methods: 2,353 hypertensive 35–69 year olds were selected from a population-based study, Know Your Heart, conducted in Arkhangelsk and Novosibirsk, Russian Federation, 2015–2018. The associations between untreated hypertension and a range of co-variates related to socio-demographics, health, and health behaviours were examined. Results: The age-standardised prevalence of untreated hypertension was 51.1% (95% CI 47.8–54.5) in males, 28.8% (25.4–32.5) in females, and 40.0% (37.5–42.5) overall. The factors associated with untreated hypertension relative to treated hypertension were younger ages, self-rated general health as very good-excellent, not being obese, no history of CVD events, no evidence of diabetes or chronic kidney disease, and not seeing a primary care doctor in the past year as well as problem drinking for women and working full time, lower education, and smoking for men. Conclusion: The study found relatively high prevalence of untreated hypertension, especially, in men. Recent initiatives to strengthen primary care provision and implementation of a general health check programme (dispansarisation) are promising, although further studies should evaluate other, potentially more effective strategies tailored to the particular circumstances of this population.