Epidemiology of Hypertension in Ethiopia: A Systematic Review

BACKGROUND: Hypertension is one of the leading causes of disease in the world. This study is a systematic review paper, intended to provide compressive evidence on the prevalence, distribution, determinants, and burden of hypertension in Ethiopia. METHODS: A quantitative epidemiological literature review was conducted by searching different articles in different databases, including PubMed, Cochrane, and Google scholar. The search involved population-based, hospital-based, and institution-based studies on hypertension conducted in Ethiopia. All data were extracted independently by two reviewers using data collection formats. Finally, this review included 22 studies. RESULTS: Different studies reported varied prevalence of hypertension because of the differences in participant’s mean ages, source population, and study settings. Population-based studies revealed the prevalence of hypertension to be 9.3–30.3%, institution-based studies revealed 7–37%, whereas hospital-based studies revealed 13.2–18.8%. In studies included in this review, about 37–78% of hypertensive patients were not aware of their blood pressure condition. There was a high prevalence of hypertension in urban residents, and different factors were associated with hypertension, including being overweight, family history of hypertension, age, sex, diabetes mellitus, alcohol intake, physical inactivity, and obesity. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION: Hypertension was substantially prevalent in Ethiopia, which calls for the implementation of timely and appropriate strategies for the prevention and control of the disease.