Arterial hypertension and associated factors: National Health Survey, 2019

OBJECTIVE: To analyze the factors associated with self-reported arterial hypertension, as well as its prevalence in the Brazilian adult population. METHODS: Data from 88,531 individuals aged 18 years or older who responded to the 2019 National Health Survey were analyzed. The outcome studied was self-reported arterial hypertension. Sociodemographic variables and clinical and lifestyle conditions were considered as exposures. The prevalence ratio (PR), crude and adjusted for sex, age, and schooling was used as a measure of association to verify the factors related to its prevalence, obtained by Poisson regression with robust variance. RESULTS: The prevalence of self-reported arterial hypertension was of 23.9% (95%CI: 23.4–24.4). When adjusting for age, sex, and schooling, the adjusted Prevalence Ratios (APR) were higher among: regular health self-assessment (APR = 1.6; 95%CI: 1.5–1.6) and bad health self-assessment (APR = 1.7; 95%CI: 1.6–1.8); self-reference to heart disease (APR = 1.7; 95%CI: 1.6–1.7), diabetes (APR = 1.7; 95%CI: 1.6–1.8), high cholesterol (APR = 1.6; 95%CI: 1.6–1.7), overweight (APR = 1.4; 95%CI: 1.4–1.5), and obesity (APR = 2.0; 95%CI: 1.9–2.1); high salt intake (APR = 1.1; 95%CI: 1.0–1.1); higher among former smokers (APR = 1.1; 95%CI: 1.1–1.2) and lower among smokers (APR = 0.9; 95%CI: 0.8–0.9); and consumption of ultra-processed foods (APR = 0.9; 95%CI: 0.8–0.9). CONCLUSION: A quarter of the Brazilian adult population claims to have arterial hypertension, more prevalent among women and associated with older age groups, Black, mixed-race, and others, low schooling, high salt intake, former smoking, presence of comorbidities, and worse health self-assessment.