ABSTRACT

 The study was designed to determine prevalence of hypertension amongst staffin Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike (MOUAU), Umuahia, Abia State. A total of 354 respondents were selected using multi-stage sampling technique. A structured questionnaire was used to elicit their dietary pattern, socio-economic blood pressure and anthropometric characteristics. The results showed that there were more females (54%) of the respondents were females than males (46%) involved in this study. Majority of the respondents were Christians with 98.35% while 6.0% and 1.1% were Muslims and traditional worshippers respectively. The respondents were aged 21-30 (9.5%), 31-40 (28.5%), 41-50 (38.4%), 51-60 (19.5%) and 61-70 (4%) years. Majority (75.4%) of the respondents lived in urban residence while about a quarter (24.6%) ofthem resided in rural areas. More than half(61.6%) ofthe respondents were married. More than half(56.2%) of the respondent had family size between 4-6 while 7.3% had a family size of 1-3. It was observed that 23.7% ofthe respondents were teaching staff while 34.5% and 41.8% were non-teaching senior staff and non-teaching junior staff respectively. Most of respondents earned between 21,000-40,000 monthly, while some of them received 81,000 -100,000 (11.0), 101,000- 120,000 (11.3%), 141,000- 200,000 (10.5%) and above 200,000 (14.7%) as salary per month. Majority (79.7%) spent less than 20,000 on food monthly while 31.4% spent 31000-40000 on food weekly. Results on consumption pattern revealed that 61% of the respondent purchased their food from the market. More than half (52.0%) of the respondents consumes food three times daily while 2% consumes food just once in a day. 61.9% of the respondent do not skip meals whereas 38.1% skips meals, it was observed that 11.9% skipped breakfast, 23.9% skipped lunch and 6% skipped dinner. Majority (93.8%) of the respondents were not on a special diet. Also 63.3% of the respondents consumed fruits (17.2%), beverages (13.6%), juices (16.7%), and confectionaries (2.5%) in-between meals. Majority (61.9%) ofthe respondents consume fruit occasionally while 38.1% consumes fruits regularly. Majority (83.6%) do not take alcohol while 2.5%, 9.9%, 4.4% take alcohol daily, weekly and occasionally respectively. 96.3% ofthe respondent do not smoke while 3.7% smokes. It was observed that 3.4% ofthe respondents add salt to meal on the table while 96.6% do not. Medical history results showed that majority (84.2%) of the respondents have not visited the hospital this year for check-up or other purposes. Some (6.5%) ofthe respondent had a family history of diabetes while 1.1%, 2.5%,4.8%, 2.8%,5.1%, 1.4% has family history of cardiac problem, dental problem, hypertension, obesity, arthritis and cancer respectively. 11.9% ofthe respondent suffered from an acute disease for 2 months while 3% suffered from an acute disease greater than 6months. Anthropometric status showed that more than half(58.5%) ofthe respondents were noimal, 29.7% were overweight while 10.7% were obese. The mean systolic blood pressure ofthe respondent was 126.7260 while the mean diastolic blood pressure was 80.7062. Therefore, the overall prevalence of hypertension of the respondents studied is 24.1%. Thus regular exercise, frequent medical checks and regular consumption of adequate diet will help prevent or reduce the complications associated with hypertension.