Double Burden: Hypertension Prevalence and Predictors among Diabetes Patients Receiving Care at the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital

Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a chronic debilitating disease associated with the development of several comorbidities like hypertension. Among diabetics, it is documented that hypertension is a leading cause of CVD-attributable mortality. It is in light of this and other negatives—poor quality of life, financial strain, et cetera, associated with a double burden of hypertension and diabetes that the study ascertained the prevalence and predictors of hypertension among diabetes patients. An institutional-based descriptive cross-sectional design was employed to systematically sample 265 diabetic patients at the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital. Data was analysed using IBM SPSS Version 25. A chi-square/Fischer’s exact and multivariate logistic regression analysis were conducted to ascertain association and determine independent predictors respectively with a p-value ≤ 0.05 recorded as statistical significance. The mean age of respondents was 60.17±10.13 with 54.0% being female. Among the patients, 50.6% had hypertension. A multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that hypertension risk was higher for diabetes patients who had a family history of diabetes (AOR = 0.34; p = 0.046), were overweight (AOR = 0.45; p = 0.045), or obese (AOR = 0.18; p < 0.001), were past smokers (AOR = 0.11; p = 0.003), earned > ₦50,000 (AOR = 0.25; p = 0.002), or experienced moderate stress (AOR = 0.34; p = 0.046). It is evident that the prevalence of hypertension among diabetes patients at was high and predicted by several factors including smoking, stress, and high body mass index. It is thus important that interventions and clinical recommendations target these factors for better treatment outcomes.

Diabetes mellitus, hypertension, comorbidity, prevalence, predictors

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