Factors associated with hypertension prevalence, unawareness and treatment among Costa Rican elderly

BMC Public Health

Table 2 Relative distribution of hypertensive Costa Rican elderly by awareness and treatment status.

Classification	Total population (n)*	Males (n)*	Females (n)*
Total population	(2,827)	(1,293)	(1,534)
Elderly with hypertension	64.5	59.8	68.8
Uncontrolled hypertension	31.9	30.4	33.3
Hypertensives according to definition criteria
Only diagnosis +	7.9	8.1	7.8
Only Medicines	6.0	8.1	4.2
Only ≥ 140/90 in three out of four measures	18.4	23.4	14.5
Diagnosis and medicines	36.7	32.9	39.7
Diagnosis and measure	6.2	6.4	6.0
Medicine and measure	0.9	0.5	1.2
Diagnosis, medicines and measure.	24.0	20.6	26.6
Hypertensives**	(1,849)	(778)	(1,071)
Aware	74.9	68.2	80.2
Unaware	25.1	31.8	19.8
Aware hypertensives	(1,378)	(530)	(848)
Treated	81.1	78.4	82.9
Untreated	18.9	21.6	17.1
Unaware hypertensives	(466)	(246)	(220)
Treated	27.1	27.0	27.3
Untreated	72.9	73.0	72.7

*Sample sizes are unweighted, whereas relative distributions correspond to weighted samples.
** Individuals with missing information on awareness of the condition (n = 5) are not included in the relative distribution.
+People who responded affirmatively to the question: "Have you ever been told by a medical doctor that you had high blood pressure (hypertension)?"

ISSN: 1471-2458