Control and Management of Hypertension at a University Health Centre in Oman

To evaluate the prevalence of hypertension , its control and management at sultan qa boos university (squ) health centre, oman. methods: this was a retrospective cross-sectional study. in which were enrolled all the subjects (> =18 years).with the diagnosis of essential hypertension , who attended the squ health centre between 1998 and 2002. the systolic and diastolicblood pressure (bp) values of the last three visits were used for analysis . bp control was defined using the joint national committeeonc -7) criteria . <140 mmhg and <90 mmhg for systolic and diastolic bps. respectively. analyses were performed using univariatestatistics . results: among the 7,702 medica l records reviewed, the prevalence of hypertension was 2,4% (n = 187). the over all meanage of the cohort was 55±1l year s, 54%(n =101) were females, and majority of the subjects were omanis (n =123; 66%). the proportionof subjects who had their bp controlled was 41%(n = 77) with omanis significantly less likely to have their bp controlled comparedto non -omanis (53%versus 35%; p =0.017). the majority of the subjects were on mono (n =131; 70%) followed by dual (n = 50; 27%)anti-hypertensive therapies. the most frequent mono anti-hyp ertensive therapies were b-blockers (n = 64; 34%) and angiotensin-convertingenzyme (ace) inhibitors (n = 47; 25%). among the dual combination therapies, the most common prescribed regimens wereace inhibitor plus b-blocker (n = 14; 28%) and b-blocker plus diuretic (n = 12; 24%). conclusion : the prevalence of hypertension inthis patient population was low compared to the national average. this study shows that control of hypertension is not optimal, buthigher than those reported elsewhere.