Hypertension Prevalence and Associated Factors in a Poor Community with High Forced Displacement in Cartagena, Colombia

Title: Hypertension prevalence and associated factors in a poor community with high forced displacement in Cartagena, Colombia. Keywords: forced displacement, poverty, hypertension, prevalence. Objective: To determine the prevalence of hypertension in a poor community of Cartagena with high forced displacement; and compare its relationship with the prevalence in the city and country. Methods: This is a descriptive, observational, transversal study; based in a database made for the “Programa de acompañamiento y tutoría a familias desplazadas y vulnerables con enfoque en salud familiar,” from ASCOFAME and the University of Cartagena in Cartagena, Colombia. 8 blocks with 40 families within were delimited in “Villa Hermosa”, a poor neighborhood in Cartagena between January and June of 2008. Hypertension was defined as blood pressure above 129/89 mmHg, or previous antihypertensive medication. Association with hypertension in Cartagena and Colombia with Chi-Square was obtained with data of previous studies; with determination of p-value (significance < 0.01). Results: There were 159 surveys. 57% (92/159) were displaced by force. 76 were above 18 years. Hypertension was diagnosed in 11.84% (9/76) in the community. Prevalence of hypertension from previous studies is 27.23% (p=0.001) in Cartagena and 8.80% (p=0.354) in Colombia. Another displaced community (called “Nelson Mandela”) had 13.4% (p=0.730) hypertension prevalence. Risk factors by order of prevalence are: ambient risk (91.2%), accidental risk (66.4%), sedentary lifestyle (61.4%), smoking (9%), alcoholism (8%) and obesity (4%). Conclusions: Hypertension was higher, even though not statistically significant compared with prevalence in Colombia. But significantly lower than the local population of the city. This may be due to low prevalence of risk factors, or most people are from other regions of the country. Previous studies have shown that population acquire prevalence of some chronic diseases when they stay for a large period of time. Prevalence of risk factors was low in this community.