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Journal of Human Hypertension (2004) 18, 623–629 & 2004 Nature Publishing Group All rights reserved 0950-9240/04 $30.00 www.nature.com/jhh

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Prevalence, awareness, treatment and control of hypertension in employees of factories of Northern Greece: the Naoussa study PA Sarafidis, A Lasaridis, S Gousopoulos, P Zebekakis, P Nikolaidis, I Tziolas and F Papoulidou 1st Department of Internal Medicine, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, AHEPA Hospital, Thessaloniki, Greece

The objective of this study was to examine the prevalence and the levels of awareness, control, and treatment of hypertension in workers, technicians and clerks of factories of the city of Naoussa. A total of 1976 employees in 19 units were examined. From those, 1937 (1045 men and 892 women), 15–73 years of age, were included in the analysis. Every employee was examined twice with 1 week’s interval between the two examinations. Analysis was performed using the 140/90 mmHg hypertension threshold. In every visit, three blood pressure (BP) measurements were taken with at least 1-min interval between them. In the analysis only the average BP of the second clinic visit was used. In total, hypertension prevalence was 30.5% (32.1% for men and 28.7% for women respectively, P ¼ 0.10). The levels of awareness, treatment, and control of hypertension in hypertensive patients were 18.6%, 11.8%, and 2.2%, respectively. The levels of awareness and treatment

differed significantly between men and women (13.4 vs 25.4%, Po0.001 and 9.6 vs 14.8%, Po0.05), but there was no difference in the levels of control (1.5 vs 3.1%, P ¼ 0.18). Hypertension prevalence, awareness, and treatment differed also between patients o45 and X45 years of age (22.0 vs 53.2%, Po0.001, 9.7 vs 28.4%, Po0.001 and 6.5 vs 17.7%, Po0.001, respectively). In conclusion, the prevalence of hypertension in our study’s population is high, while the levels of awareness, treatment, and control are disappointing and should be significantly improved. There is also a difference in awareness and treatment in favour of women compared to men and in favour of patients X45 years of age compared to those o45 years of age. Journal of Human Hypertension (2004) 18, 623–629. doi:10.1038/sj.jhh.1001724 Published online 18 March 2004

Keywords: prevalence; awareness; treatment; control; Northern Greece

Introduction Hypertension is one of the most important modifiable risk factors for cardiovascular disease (CVD). It is very common in the general population and a risk factor for coronary artery disease, myocardial infarction, stroke, congestive heart failure, end-stage renal disease, and peripheral vascular disease.1–3 Pharmacological treatment of hypertension has been shown to decrease the risk of cardiovascular complications.4,5 Blood pressure (BP) reduction through nonpharmacological intervention has not Correspondence: Dr PA Sarafidis, 1st Department of Internal Medicine, AHEPA University Hospital, St Kiriakidi 1, Thessaloniki 54636, Greece. E-mail: [email protected] Received 29 September 2003; revised 29 January 2004; accepted 04 February 2004; published online 18 March 2004

been directly proven to reduce cardiovascular risk, but this is considered highly possible, given all the other evidence suggesting that the benefits of antihypertensive treatment are determined primarily by the BP reduction per se. That is why lifestyle modifications are considered very important for both prevention and treatment of hypertension.6,7 Having in mind all the above mentioned, it is understandable how important is to know the prevalence of hypertension in the general or in special populations, as well as the levels of awareness, treatment, and control of hypertension. For this purpose, a considerable number of epidemiological studies have been conducted, such as a part of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) III in the United States (US),8 studies in Canada,9 United Kingdom,10 Morocco,11 Belgium,12 Finland,13 France,14 etc.

Hypertension in Northern Greece factory employees PA Sarafidis et al 624

Some of them were cross-sectional8–11 and others cohort studies.12–14 A number of these surveys were part of the Multinational Monitoring of Trends and Determinants in Cardiovascular Diseases (MONICA) project of the World Health Organization, which tried to evaluate the levels of hypertension and other CVD risk factors in many countries.12–15 The main conclusion of all these studies is that the outcomes of achieving the target of BP control still remain disappointing.6,7,16 The ‘rule of halves’, which was introduced during the 1960s in the US to describe the fact that only half of those with hypertension were aware of it, only half of those aware were receiving treatment, and only half of those treated had their hypertension controlled, seems to be still valid.17 In Greece, only a few years ago, there were very few data about hypertension prevalence18 and no data at all about hypertension awareness, treatment, and control. The only study on this issue was conducted in the late 1990s by Stergiou et al19 in the population of the village Didyma in Southern Greece. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to estimate the levels of prevalence, awareness, treatment, and control of hypertension in a special population consisting of the employees of factories in a city of Northern Greece.

Subjects and methods Study population

The study used a cross-sectional survey, which was carried out in employees of 19 factories in the area of the city of Naoussa in Northern Greece. In the survey a total of 1976 employees were evaluated, 39 were excluded due to incomplete data and 1937, 15–73 years of age, were analysed. Well-trained physicians evaluated all subjects on two visits with 1 week’s interval in spaces of the offices of each factory provided by the administration. The survey was conducted from March to October 1998 and 95% of the subjects were evaluated in Spring or Autumn. In the initial visit, an interview took place to obtain information on demographic and educational data, the professional specialty and the hours of work, the subject’s and family history of hypertension, diabetes mellitus, dyslipidaemia, heart failure, coronary artery disease, stroke or other diseases, drug treatment for hypertension or other diseases, smoking and alcohol consumption, and dietary habits. Every subject had his height and weight measured in order to estimate the body mass index (BMI) as weight divided by height squared. Waist circumference in the narrowest part of the torso and hip circumference in the widest part of the buttocks was measured to estimate the waist to hip ratio (W/H ratio).20 Heart rate was measured in the sitting posture in the radial artery. Journal of Human Hypertension

BP measurement

BP was measured according to the international guidelines.6,7,21 Measurements were taken at the end of the interview using a standard mercury sphygmomanometer with bladder size 12 35 cm. The subject remained at rest in the sitting posture for at least 5 min and then the BP was measured in both arms. If there was a difference between the two arms, the measurements were taken in the arm with the highest BP. For diastolic BP (DBP) Korotkoff phase V was used. In every visit, three BP measurements were taken with at least 1-min interval between them. In the analysis, only the average BP of the second clinic visit was used. Subjects who were examined only in the initial visit were excluded from the analysis. If the subjects received antihypertensive medication, the measurements took place without any intervention on it. Definitions

Hypertension was defined as systolic BP (SBP) X140 mmHg or DBP X90 mmHg, or current treatment with antihypertensive drugs, according to the guidelines of the Joint National Committee (JNC) VI in the US6 and the WHO - International Society of Hypertension.7 Awareness of hypertension reflects knowledge of the subject about being hypertensive based on a previous diagnosis. Treatment of hypertension was defined as current use of antihypertensive drugs and control as treated hypertension with SBP o140 and DBP o90 mmHg. Patients who reported a positive history of hypertension and had BP below 140/90 mmHg without receiving treatment were classified as normotensives. Statistical analysis

Analysis was performed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) 10 for Windows 98 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA). Continuous variables are presented as mean7standard deviation (mean7s.d.). Qualitative variables are presented as absolute and relative frequencies. Student’s t-test for independent samples and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) were used to estimate differences between mean values. w2-test with the Yates correction, where appropriate, was used to compare frequencies. Multivariate adjustment was performed using multiple logistic regression analysis. Probability values of Po0.05 or lower were considered statistically significant.

Results Prevalence, awareness, treatment, and control of hypertension

Among 1937 subjects included in the analysis, 1045 (53.9%) were men and 892 (46.1%) women.


Demographic characteristics of the subjects are presented in Table 1. There were significant differences between men and women in weight, height and W/H ratio (Po0.001) but not in age and BMI. Only 26.1% of hypertensives were lean (BMIo25 kg/m2), 51.4% of them were overweight (BMIX25 and o30 kg/m2) and 22.5% obese (BMIX30 kg/m2) compared to 54.3, 37.5, and 8.3% of normotensives, respectively (Po0.001). Among men, 39.4% of hypertensives vs 18.9% of normotensives had W/H ratio X0.85 (Po0.001), while 50.8% of hypertensive vs 26.6% of normotensive women had W/H ratio X0.95 (Po0.001). The prevalence of smoking was 43.2% in the total population. Smoking was more common among men compared to women (53.9 vs 30.6%, Po0.001), but less common in hypertensives compared to normotensives (37.7 vs 45.5%, Po0.01). As shown in Table 2, 591 out of 1937 subjects (30.5%) were hypertensives. Among them, 110 (18.6%) were aware of their hypertension. Seven subjects who reported a positive history of hypertension but their BP was o140/90 mmHg without antihypertensive treatment were classified as normotensives. A total of 70 hypertensives were receiving treatment (11.8%), while only 13 (2.2%) were having their hypertension controlled. The percentage of control among treated hypertensives was 18.6%. Out of 1045 men, 355 and out of 892 women, 256 were hypertensives (32.1 vs 28.7%, P ¼ 0.10). The levels of awareness among hypertensive men and women were 13.4 vs 25.4% (Po0.001), those of treatment were 9.6 vs 14.8% (Po0.05), and those of control were 1.5 vs 3.1% (P ¼ 0.18), respectively. Table 1 Demographic characteristics of the total population, men, and women (mean7s.d.)

Age (years) Weight (kg) Height (m) BMI (kg/m2) W/H ratio

Total (n ¼ 1937)

Men (n ¼ 1045)

Women (n ¼ 892)

Pa-value

38.3710.2 72.6713.1 1.6870.1 25.7473.95 0.8770.08

38.5710.4 78.5711.2 1.7470.07 25.8073.38 0.9170.06

37.979.9 65.8711.9 1.6070.07 25.6874.54 0.8270.07

NS o0.001 o0.001 NS o0.001

a

Comparison between men and women. NS ¼ not significant.

The percentages of control among treated hypertensives were 15.6% for men and 21.1% for women (P ¼ 0.56) (Table 2). If the old threshold of 160/ 95 mmHg is used, the prevalence of hypertension is only 16.1% in total (17.6% in men vs 14.3% in women, P ¼ 0.52). Only three subjects were above 65 years of age, as all of them were employees. The cutoff point of 45 years of age was chosen to divide the population in two groups. In total, 1407 subjects were o45 (72.6%) and 530 were X45 years of age (27.4%). As shown in Table 3, 22.0% of subjects o45 and 53.2% of subjects X45 years of age were hypertensives (Po0.001). Among hypertensives o45 years of age only 9.7% were aware of their hypertension, while the level of awareness among hypertensives X45 years of age was 28.4% (Po0.001). The levels of treatment were 6.5 and 17.7% (Po0.001), and the levels of control were 2.3 and 2.1%, respectively (P ¼ 0.90). The percentages of control among treated hypertensives were 35 vs 12% (Po0.05), which suggest that when patients o45 years receive antihypertensive treatment have more often their hypertension controlled than those X45 years of age. The study population was divided in three groups as far as education was concerned; those who had completed only primary education, (n ¼ 896, 46.3%), those who had graduated from secondary school or high school (n ¼ 847, 43.7%), and those who had graduated from technical colleges or universities (n ¼ 194, 10%). About 39.1% of the first group, 22.4% of the second, and 26.3% of the third had elevated BP. There was significant difference in the prevalence between the first and the second group (Po0.001) and the first and the third group (Po0.01), but not between the second and the third group (P ¼ 0.25). However, after adjusting for age, sex, BMI, smoking habit, and family history of hypertension the educational level was not found to be associated with a higher or lower relative risk of being hypertensive, or having hypertension detected, treated, or controlled in our population. The whole population was also divided in three general categories according to their professional specialty: workers (n ¼ 1503, 77.6%), technicians (n ¼ 186, 9.6%), and clerks (n ¼ 248, 12.8%). The prevalence of hypertension was 29.8, 33.9 and

Table 2 Prevalence, awareness, treatment and control of hypertension in total, men and women Total (n ¼ 1937) Prevalence Awareness Treatment Control Subjects under control among subjects receiving treatment

591 110 70 13 13/70

(30.5%) (18.6%) (11.8%) (2.2%) (18.6%)

Men (n ¼ 1045) 335 45 32 5 5/32

(32.1%) (13.4%) (9.6%) (1.5%) (15.6%)

Women (n ¼ 892) 256 65 38 8 8/38

(28.7%) (25.4%) (14.8%) (3.1%) (21.1%)

Pa-value NS o0.001 o0.05 NS NS

a

Comparison between men and women. NS ¼ not significant. Journal of Human Hypertension


Table 3 Awareness, treatment and control of hypertension in total, and in hypertensives o45 and X45 years of age Total (n ¼ 1937) Prevalence Awareness Treatment Control Subjects under control among subjects receiving treatment

591 110 70 13 13/70

o45 years (n ¼ 1407)

(30.5%) (18.6%) (11.8%) (2.2%) (18.6%)

309 30 20 7 7/20

X45 years (n ¼ 530)

(22.0%) (9.7%) (6.5%) (2.3%) (35.0%)

282 80 50 6 6/50

(53.2%) (28.4%) (17.7%) (2.1%) (12.0%)

Pa-value o0.001 o0.001 o0.001 NS o0.05

Comparison between o45 and X45 years groups. NS ¼ not significant.

a

Table 4 Blood pressure levels in normotensive, treated hypertensive, and untreated hypertensive employees (mean7s.d.) Total (n ¼ 1937)

Normotensives Treated hypertensives Untreated hypertensives

Men (n ¼ 1045)

Women (n ¼ 892)

SBP

DBP

SBP

DBP

SBP

DBP

121.2710.0 153.9718.5* 145.3713.7*,**

76.177.7 96.3712.3* 94.378.6*

122.579.6 153.4716.0* 144.3712.5*,**

76.977.9 98.1712.6* 95.079.0*

119.7710.2 154.2720.6* 146.8715.0*,***

75.277.4 94.9712.0* 93.477.9*

*Difference from normotensives, Po0.001. **Difference from treated hypertensives, Po0.001. ***Difference from treated hypertensives, Po0.01.

34.2%, respectively, with no significant differences between the groups. After adjusting for age, sex, BMI, smoking habit, and family history of hypertension professional specialty was also not associated with a different relative risk of being hypertensive and this is the case for hypertension awareness, treatment, and control. BP levels

The mean BP (SBP/DBP) was 121.2710.0/ 76.177.7 mmHg for normotensives, 153.9718.5/ 96.3712.3 mmHg for treated hypertensives, and 145.3713.7/94.378.6 mmHg for untreated hypertensives. Normotensives had lower SBP and DBP compared to each of the other groups (Po0.001 for each comparison), while treated hypertensives had higher SBP than untreated hypertensives (Po0.001), which is in agreement with the very low levels of control. There was no significant difference in the levels of DBP between treated and untreated hypertensives (P ¼ 0.08). All the above differences in SBP and DBP were similar in men and women (Table 4).

Discussion The main purpose of this cross-sectional survey was to determine the prevalence of hypertension, as well as the levels of hypertension awareness, treatment, and control in a population originating from Northern Greece and consisting of factory employees. Therefore, this study adds data on the epidemiology Journal of Human Hypertension

of hypertension not only for a special population (factory employees), for which information is limited, but also for a South European country, in which such epidemiologic surveys are extremely rare. Our main findings was that hypertension is a very common modifiable CVD risk factor in this population but the proportions of hypertensives that are aware of it, receive antihypertensive treatment and have their BP adequately controlled are disappointing and need to be significantly improved. In addition, hypertension awareness and treatment were higher in women compared to men, and in older patients compared to younger. This survey was conducted using a very carefully standardized protocol, having in mind how difficult it is to determine hypertension prevalence in population surveys in a standardized manner. BP measurements were taken according to the international guidelines.6,7,21 Only patients with two sets of measurements were included in the analysis. The definitions of awareness, treatment, and control of hypertension were similar to those of other studies carried throughout the world8,10,14 for reasons of comparison. The vast majority of the subjects (95%) were evaluated in Spring and Autumn, in order to avoid seasonal variation in BP that could affect the results. There are still, however, some methodological issues that could have led to a slight overestimation of hypertension prevalence in our study, having in mind the mean age (38.3 years) of the population. The first of them is the ‘white-coat effect’, which is very common and more overt when the measurements are taken by a physician instead of a nurse, as in our study.22,23 This is, however, a


common limitation for every study with one or two visits for BP measurement.8–14,18,19 We tried to minimize it with the evaluation of the measurements of the second examination only, as many other studies do,8,9,19 and is recently elsewhere suggested in order to improve adequacy of population surveys.24 In addition, in all the studies on this field BP measurements are made either at home or in the clinic, and it has been shown that readings obtained in the clinic are higher than those taken at home.25 The factory environment could represent an even more stressing setting, but to our knowledge, there is no study so far comparing BPs in the same subjects measured by medical personnel at home or clinic and in job. Studies on these field usually compare BPs of people employed in high- and lowstrain jobs, concluding that people employed in jobs combining high demands and low control or decision latitude (high-strain jobs) have increased risk of hypertension and higher BPs than those employed in low-strain jobs.26 Thus, it is not known if BP measurement in the offices of factories would affect the results and to what extent. In our survey, BP was initially measured in both arms and the measurements took on in the arm with the highest BP. This is only performed so far in one study,11 whereas in others measurements either from the right,8,9 or the left arm19 were used. This fact has certainly led to higher BPs in our population compared to other studies, but to our view it is a method rather increasing the adequacy of the data. In the first survey to investigate the prevalence of hypertension in Greece, 31% of men and 27.7% of women were classified as normotensives. This survey has several limitations (single BP measurement, small bladder size, no information about the use of antihypertensive drugs) and the population sample originated only from the capital.18 The second study was much more carefully designed but the subjects were people living permanently in a small village, so it is unknown to what extent its findings are representative for the urban Greek population.19 Very recently, another Greek survey was published which was conducted on the basis of random sampling in the area of Attica (Athens Prefecture) including 78% urban and 22% rural population. However, the whole area of Attica is highly urbanized (even the citizens of the surrounding villages normally move every day to and from the capital for their jobs).27 In our survey the population lied in-between since Naoussa is a small provincial city and about 57% of the subjects came from this city and 43% from the surrounding villages. The prevalence of hypertension in this survey (30.5%) lay between that of the Canadian (22%)9 study, the NHANES III (24%),8 the Belgian (26.7% for men and 20.0% for women),12 the Didyma (28.4%),19 and the English study (38%),10 when the 140/90 mmHg hypertension threshold is used. It is also lower than the prevalence of the Moroccan

(33.6%),11 the Finnish study (crude total 51% for men and 35% for women when the threshold of 140/ 90 mmHg is used),13 and that of the Attica study for men (38.2% for men and 23.9% for women),27 but in the last three surveys a single visit for BP measurement took place. A recent study, which summarized in a standardized form adequate data from national surveys in the US, Canada, and six European countries, found much lower prevalence of hypertension in US (27.8%) and Canada (27.4%) than in Europe (44.2% in average, ranging from 37.7% in Italy to 55.3% in Germany), introducing an important question about this difference, which has no apparent explanation.28 The trend for lower prevalence of hypertension in women found in the present survey is in agreement with all the relevant ones,8,9,11–14,18,19,27 with the exception of the survey in Morocco (30.2% for men vs 37.0% for women, P ¼ 0.08).11 This difference ranges roughly from 1.5–14% using the 140/ 90 mmHg threshold, and part of it is usually attributed to lifestyle differences between sexes. In our study, subjects X45 years of age had much higher prevalence than those o45 years. The increase of hypertension prevalence with age is a typical finding in all the related studies.8–11,14,19,27 Education does not seem to play an important role in hypertension prevalence, since after multivariate analysis no association was found between the educational level and hypertension prevalence, as in other studies.12,14,27 The same is true for the occupational specialty of the employees. The levels of awareness and treatment of hypertension seem to be lower in European countries than in the US or Canada.8–10,28 However, this downward trend itself cannot explain our findings, since awareness (18.6%) and treatment (11.8%) in the present study are much lower than any international8–10,28 or Greek study.19,27 The level of control is also disappointing (2.2%) compared with that in the US (24%)8 or in Canada (16%),9 although closer to those in European countries (5–9%),10,27,28 with the exception of the Didyma study (27%).19 In our survey hypertension awareness and treatment are higher in women than men, as in many other studies,8–10,12–14,19 but the percentages of control are too low to produce any significant differences. These differences in favour of women indicate possibly a better perception of hypertension-associated risks among the first. Impressively, the levels of awareness and treatment almost tripled from the younger to the older age group. The most possible explanation for this increase in awareness is that young subjects had never measured their BP before. As far as treatment is concerned, this difference could imply that young people cannot face the possibility of suffering a ‘disease’, or alternatively they have not been taught that labile or mild elevation in BP can be dangerous. The fact that about 70% of the subjects in the present survey are o45 years of age is one possible Journal of Human Hypertension


explanation of the low levels of awareness, treatment, and control in total. Another one could be that the study population is treated by many physicians with different strategies on hypertension treatment, in contrast, for example, to the Didyma study,19 where the population consists of a small closed rural community whose medical care has been probably undertaken by one or two doctors. One should also keep in mind that since our subjects are employees, the whole population could be under the continuous job stress or even under the threat of unemployment. It has been reported elsewhere29 that people in such social environments, since in early stages BP elevation is usually not connected to severe symptoms, are not much familiar with the hypertension-associated risks and the need to treat hypertension to increase life expectancy. In conclusion, the high levels of hypertension prevalence and the very low levels of awareness, treatment, and control presented in our survey indicate the necessity to initiate major national screening programmes in the level of primary care and industrial medicine to track, and treat hypertension in time in Greek labour class. In addition, in order to obtain more reliable results for Greek population on this field, surveys with random sampling from all over the country should be conducted or even studies in different jobs or social groups should be planned.

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Acknowledgements We thank Mrs Olympia Karra, secretary of the Hypertension Unit of the 1st Department of Internal Medicine of Aristotle University for her work in preparing this paper.

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