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Background. Hypertension, coupled with prehypertension and other hazards such as high blood pressure, is responsible for 8·5 million deaths from stroke, ischaemic heart disease, other vascular diseases, and renal disease worldwide. Hypertension is the fifth commonest cause of outpatient morbidity in Ghana. Some evidence have illustrated geographical variation in hypertension and it seems to have a heavy toll on women in southern Ghana compared to the north. This study seeks to determine the prevalence and associatedfactors of hypertension among women in southern Ghana using the most recent demographic and health survey (DHS) data set. Materials and Methods. This study used data of 5,662 women from the current DHS data from Ghana that was conducted in 2014. Data were extracted from the women’s file of the 2014 Ghana DHS. The outcome variable of this current study was hypertension and it was measured by blood pressure, according to guidelines of the Joint National Committee Seven (JNC7). Multivariable binary logistic regression analyses were performed to establish the factors associated with hypertension at the individual and community levels. Results. Prevalence of hypertension among women in southern Ghana was 16%. Women aged 40-44 years (aOR = 8.04, CI = 4.88-13.25) and 45-49 years (aOR = 13.20, CI = 7.96-21.89] had the highest odds of hypertension relative to women aged 15-19 years. Women with two births (aOR = 1.45, CI = 1.01-2.07) and those with three births (aOR = 1.47, CI = 1.01-2.15) had a higher likelihood of being hypertensive. Greater Accra women had higher odds (aOR = 1.35, CI = 1.02-1.79) of being hypertensive relative to the reference category, women from the Western region. Women of Guan ethnicity had a lesser likelihood (aOR = 0.54, CI = 0.29-0.98) of being hypertensive. Women who engaged in agriculture had the least likelihood (aOR = 0.72, CI = 0.52-0.99) of being classified hypertensive compared to unemployed women. Conclusion. This study has revealed the prevalence of hypertension among women in southern Ghana. The associated factors include age, parity, region, and occupation. As a result, existing interventions need to be appraised in the light of these factors. Of essence is the need for Ghana Health Service to implement wide-embracing health promotion initiatives that accommodate the nutritional, exercise, and lifestyle needs of women in southern Ghana. Having more children is associated with higher propensity of hypertension and consequently, women need to limit childbearing to reduce their chances of being hypertensive. It will also be advisable for women in the Greater Accra region to have frequent hypertension screening, as women in the region exhibited higher hypertension prospects.
The study was implemented in southern Ghana. Our study was based on 2014 Ghana Demographic and Health Survey (GDHS); and it is worth noting that prior to 2018 Ghana had ten administrative regions [9]. As stated by the Ghana Statistical Service, six out of the ten regions constitute southern Ghana and these are Western, Central, Greater Accra, Ashanti, Eastern, and Volta region as illustrated in green in Figure 1. One key distinction between southern and northern Ghana manifest in skeweness in development towards the south [10]. Southern Ghana. This study used current DHS data of Ghana which was conducted in 2014 [11]. Specifically, data was pulled from the women’s files of the DHS data set. DHS are national surveys in respective countries carried out approximately every five years in over 90 low- and middle-income countries in the world [12]. DHS concentrates on maternal and child health issues, including physical activity, non-communicable diseases, sexually transmitted infections, fertility, tobacco use, health insurance, and alcohol consumption. The survey categorically provides data to monitor the demographic and health profiles of included countries [12]. The sample for the present study consisted of women whose blood pressure were taken (aged 15–49 years) and had complete cases on all variables of interest (N = 5, 662). The DHS program permitted us access to the dataset after the evaluation of our concept note. The datasetis freely available and accessible to the public at https://www.measuredhs.com/. The outcome variable of this study was hypertension, measured by blood pressure. For 2014 DHS, blood pressure was monitored and measured thrice and these followed the UA-767F/FAC (A & D Medical) blood pressure computation with a minimum of 10 minutes interval [10]. Hypertension status was determined by computing the average of the second and third measurements. It was in line with the calibration by similar empirical studies on hypertension that relied on DHS datasets [13]. Guided by the guidelines of the Joint National Committee Seven (JNC7), hypertension was computed as the average systolic blood pressure of ≥140 mmHg and/or an average diastolic blood pressure of ≥90 mmHg. Consequently, a hypertensive woman was identified as 1, and non-hypertensive women were identified otherwise “0.” Eleven explanatory variables were examined in the study. The selection of these variables was based on conceptual relevance and their significant association with the outcome variable based on findings from previous studies [14–17]. A number of studies have followed this approach [18, 19]. All variables were grouped into personal and community level variables based on the orderly nature of the dataset. The variables were determined based on their availability in the dataset, practical significance, and theoretical relevance for hypertension. The individual level explanatory variables were wealth status, age, marital status, education, parity, occupation, and the consumption of salted fish in the last 24 hours. Age was recorded as 15–19, 20–24, 25–29, 30–34, 35–39, 40–44, and 45–49 years. Wealth status was categorized into poorest, poorer, middle, richer, and richest. Education was classified into four categories: no education, primary education, secondary education, and higher education. Occupation was identified unemployed, professional/clerical, sales/services, agricultural worker, and manual worker. Consumption of salted fish in the last 24 hours was coded as Yes and No. Four variables were selected at the community level. These are region, place of residence, ethnicity, and religion. The region was coded as Eastern, Western, Greater Accra, Central Volta, and Ashanti, since the study was limited to the Southern part of Ghana. Ethnicity was coded Ga/Dangme, Akan, Ewe, Guan, Mole-Dagbani, Gurma, Grusi, Mande, and others. Religion was identified as Islam, Christianity, and others. Place of residence was identified as urban and rural. Data were extracted, cleaned, and analyzed using Stata software version 13.0. Percentage was used to summarize the prevalence of hypertension among respondents. Cross-tabulation was adopted to examine the distribution of hypertension across explanatory variables. Results of cross-tabulation were displayed using percentages with their corresponding confidence intervals. Subsequently, multivariable binary logistic regression analysis was used to determine the factors related with hypertension. Three (3) models were built to examine the factors associated with hypertension. The first model (Model I) consisted of only individual-level variables. Model II was built to contain community-level variables, whilst in Model III, all explanatory variables were combined to examine their association with hypertension. Results of the study were presented using adjusted odds ratio (aOR) with their respective 95% confidence intervals. The women’s sample weights (v005/1,000,000) were utilized to achieve unbiased estimates, and the Stata survey command “svy” was used to correct for the data’s complex sampling structure in the chi-square test and regression analyses, as recommended by DHS. We evaluated the fitness of all models with Akaike’s information criterion (AIC) and Bayesian information criterion (BIC). The presence of multicollinearity between independent variables was checked before fitting these models. The variance inflation factor (VIF) test revealed the absence of high multicollinearity between variables (Mean VIF = 3.01). This study included participation of human subjects; however, the authors of this manuscript were not directly involved in data collection processes. According to the final report of 2014 GDHS, the survey protocol, including biomarker collection, was reviewed and approved by the Ghana Health Service’ Ethical Review Committee and the Institutional Review Board of ICF International [10]. For every research participant, either written or verbal consent was obtained.
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