Abstract
Objective: To characterize adult patients with hypertension attending Armed Forces family medicine clinics in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia.
Methods: Ten percent of all patients attending Armed Forces family medicine clinics in 2003 were selected by stratified systematic random sampling. Data about age, sex, diagnosis, referrals, follow up, health education, co-morbidities were collected from patients' (age >18 yrs) medical records using a pilot-tested data collection form and analyzed using SPSS 10 (P <.05). Hypertension was defined according to WHO criteria.
Results: The prevalence of hypertension was 7.3% (n =7644; mean age, 33.5 13.1 years). Patients with hypertension were significantly older (53.6 versus 33.5 years, respectively) and significantly more likely to have diabetes mellitus (44.3% versus 7.1%, respectively) than patients without hypertension. Patients with hypertension were followed up (78.8% versus 3.2%, respectively) and offered a health education session (75% versus 14.4%, respectively) significantly more often than were patients without hypertension.
Conclusion: Hypertension is common among patients attending family clinics in Tabuk; the prevalence increases with age. Patients with hypertension receive more health education and follow up than do patients without hypertension. Evaluating the content and outcomes of the education and follow-up visits could help to develop more effective interventions.