Blood pressure control in hypertensive patients attending a rural community health centre in Gauteng Province, South Africa: A cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND: Hypertension is a major cause of morbidity and mortality and its control has important clinical and socio-economic benefits to the family and community. Unfortunately, the extent of blood pressure (BP) control and its potential predictors in hypertensive patients in many rural communities in low-resource settings are largely unknown. This study assessed the extent of uncontrolled BP and its predictors amongst hypertensive patients accessing primary health care in a rural community in South Africa. METHODS: This cross-sectional study included 422 randomly selected hypertensive patients. Demographic and clinical data were collected using structured face-to-face questionnaire supplemented by respondents’ clinical records. RESULTS: Obesity plus overweight (n = 286, 67.8%) and diabetes (n = 228, 54.0%) were the most common comorbidities. Treatment adherence was achieved in only 36.3% and BP was controlled to target in 50.2% of the respondents. Significant predictors of uncontrolled BP were poor treatment adherence (odds ratio [OR] = 15.88, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 8.96, 28.14, p < 0.001), obesity compared with normal weight and overweight (OR = 3.75, 95% CI = 2.17, 6.46, p < 0.001) and being a diabetic (OR = 2.83, 95% CI = 1.74, 4.61, p < 0.001). CONCLUSION: Poor adherence to treatment was the major predictor of uncontrolled BP. The increase in uncontrolled BP in the presence of diabetes and/or obesity as risk predictors, indicates the need for appropriate behaviour change/interventions and management of these conditions in line with the health belief model (HBM). We also propose the use of Community-Based Physical and Electronic Reminding and Tracking System (CB-PERTS) to address poor treatment adherence.