Incidence of essential hypertension in young adult males followed for over two decades

BACKGROUND: The data about the incidence of hypertension in India is scarce and is lacking about hypertension in young adult patients. We studied the incidence of hypertension in a cohort of young adult male military personnel followed for a long duration. METHODS: The data for this retrospective, observational study was derived from the electronic medical records (EMR) of the male service personnel enrolled between 1990 and 2015. All subjects were recruited before 18 years of age in good health without any disease. Hypertension in young adults was defined as the onset of the disease prior to 45 years of age. We calculated the incidence rates as per person years using appropriate statistical methods. RESULTS: Our study population includes 51,217 participants (median age 33 years, range 17–54) with a mean follow up of 12.5 years, giving a total observation period of 613,925 person-years (py). During the study period, 360 patients developed hypertension, giving an incidence rate of 58.6 per 100,000 py (95% CI 52.8–64.9). The mean age at the time of diagnosis was 33.5 ± 5.7 years (range 20–45) with 5.6 ± 3.9 years (range 0.3–21 yr) of follow up after the diagnosis. Only 16 patients (4.4%) had associated cardiovascular complications attributable to hypertension. CONCLUSION: Our cohort had low incidence rates of hypertension when compared with other studies from abroad. Active military service may offer protection from the hypertension and associated complications.