Document Type

Article

Department

Internal Medicine (East Africa)

Abstract

The May Measurement Month (MMM) is a global screening campaign launched in 2017 to raise awareness of raised blood pressure (BP). Kenya has participated in all previous MMM campaigns. Adults aged ≥18 years were recruited through convenience sampling in nine counties of Kenya. Three seated BP readings were taken on each participant, and a questionnaire collected information on demographics, lifestyle factors, and comorbidities. Hypertension was defined as a systolic BP ≥140mmHg or diastolic BP ≥90mmHg or being on BP-lowering medication. Controlled BP was defined as being on BP-lowering medication with a BP < 140/90mmHg. Multiple imputation was used to estimate missing BP readings. In total, 4,601 were screened, with a mean age of 41.7 years and 42.7% were female. Of all participants, 1,176 (25.6%) had hypertension, of whom 198 (16.8%) were aware, and 190 (16.2%) were on antihypertensive medication. Of those on antihypertensive medication, 65 (34.2%) had controlled BP, and of all participants with hypertension, 5.5% had controlled BP. The mean systolic and diastolic BPs of those on treatment was significantly higher than those without hypertension. Hypertensive disease in a previous pregnancy was associated with higher BP amongst female participants.

The MMM campaign in Kenya identified a substantial number of participants who were unaware of their hypertension, and a high proportion with untreated and inadequately treated hypertension. Notably, hypertensive disease in pregnancy was associated with elevated BP later in life.

Publication (Name of Journal)

European Heart Journal Supplements

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1093/eurheartjsupp/suag094

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License

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