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CARDIOVASCULAR JOURNAL OF AFRICA • Volume 29, No 4, July/August 2018
220
AFRICA
with their confidence intervals. Comparisons were made using
the Student’s
t
-test for continuous data and chi-squared or
Fisher’s exact test for categorical data.
Theoutcomewasdichotomisedaspatientshavinghypertension
or not, then logistic regression was used to determine the
association between the predictors and hypertension. This was
presented as odds ratio (OR) and their 95% confidence interval
(CI). Only factors with a
p
-value
<
0.2 at bivariate analysis
were considered for multivariate analysis. Multivariate logistic
regression was performed and interaction was assessed for with
the Chunk test. Confounding was assessed for using a 10%
difference between the crude and adjusted models. Significance
was at
p
≤
0.05.
Results
This study recruited 201 newly diagnosed diabetic patients
between June 2014 and January 2015. Of these, 102 (50.8%)
were males. The mean age of the participants was 46
±
15 years
(Table 1). Patients with type 1 and type 2 DM had mean ages of
25.6 (18–42) and 51.9 (26–90) years, respectively. The majority of
patients had type 2 DM (
n
=
159, 79.1%) and the rest had type 1
DM (
n
=
42, 20.9%) (Table 2). The mean HbA
1c
was 13.9
±
5.3%.
Mean duration of diabetes was two months. The majority of
patients (124, 62.0%) were unemployed.
Blood pressure assessment was performed on all 201
participants and the results are shown in Table 3. Prevalence
of hypertension was 61.9% (95% CI: 54.8–68.6%). Systolic
hypertension was present in 104 (51.5%) participants (95%
CI: 45.3–59.2%) while diastolic hypertension was present in
92 (45.5%) (95% CI: 39.3–53.2%). Among those who were
hypertensive, only 56 (27.7%) knew that they were hypertensive,
and among these, only 24 (44.4%) were on treatment for
hypertension. The use of either ACE inhibitors or angiotensin
receptor blockers (ARBs) among those who knew their
hypertension status was only 19 (33.9%) subjects.
For participants who knew their hypertension status, the
majority 44 (77.2) had been hypertensive for less than five years.
The number who had been hypertensive for durations between
five and 10 years and more than 10 years were eight (4.3%) and
five (8.8%), respectively.
In bivariate analysis, the factors associated with hypertension
included: female gender, age above 40 years, participants who
Table 1. Social demographics of 201 newly diagnosed diabetic patients
at Mulago National Referral Hospital who participated in the study
Characteristics
Total
(
n
)
Total
(%)
Hypertensive
n
(%)
Normotensive
n
(%)
Age
<
40 years
58
28.9
21 (36.2)
37 (63.8)
> 40 years
143 71.1
105 (73.4)
38 (26.6)
Gender
Male
102
50.8
54 (52.9)
48 (47.1)
Female
99
49.3
72 (72.7)
27 (27.3)
Employment
Employed
76
38.0
41 (53.9)
35 (46.1)
Unemployed
124 62.0
85 (68.6)
39 (31.4)
Pregnancy
Yes
6
5.4
3 (50.0)
3 (50.0)
No
105 94.6
74 (70.5)
31 (29.5)
Education
None
17
8.5
10 (58.8)
7 (41.2)
Primary
78
38.8
50 (64.1)
28 (35.9)
Secondary
75
37.3
45 (60.0)
30 (40.0)
Tertiary
31
15.4
21 (67.7)
10 (32.3)
Marital status
Never married
29
14.4
7 (24.1)
22 (75.9)
Currently married
119 59.2
83 (69.8)
36 (30.3)
No longer married
53
26.4
36 (67.9)
17 (32.1)
Table 2. Characteristics of 201 newly diagnosed diabetic patients at
Mulago National Referral Hospital who participated in the study
Characteristic
Total
(
n
)
Total
(%)
Hypertensive
n
(%)
Normotensive
n
(%)
Physical activity at work
Sedentary
25
12.4
16 (69.6)
7 (30.4)
Mild
51
25.3
33 (64.7)
18 (35.3)
Moderate
82
40.6
54 (66.7)
27 (33.3)
Strenuous
22 (50.0)
22 (50.0)
Does not work
44
21.8
1 (50.0)
1 (50.0)
Physical activity at leisure
Sedentary
142 71.0
96 (67.6)
46 (32.4)
Moderate
58
29.0
29 (50.0)
29 (50.0)
DM type
Type 1
42
20.9
11 (26.2)
31 (73.8)
Type 2
159 79.1
115 (72.3)
44 (27.7)
Microalbumin in urine
Absent
79
44.9
50 (62.5)
30 (37.5)
Present
97
55.1
58 (61.1)
37 (38.3)
BMI
Underweight
39
19.4
10 (25.6)
29 (74.4)
Normal weight
75
37.3
40 (53.3)
35 (46.7)
Over weight
3
1.5
1 (33.3)
2 (66.7)
Obesity
84
41.8
75 (89.3)
9 (10.7)
Waist:hip ratio
Normal
141 69.8
81 (57.9)
59 (42.1)
Abnormal
61
30.2
45 (73.8)
16 (26.2)
HbA
1c
(%)
<
7%
15
8.4
11 (73.3)
4 (26.7)
> 7%
164 91.6
101 (61.9)
62 (38.0)
Ejection fraction (%)
> 50%
158 78.2
102 (64.6)
56 (35.4)
<
50%
44
21.8
24 (55.8)
19 (44.2)
LVH
Present
39
19.3
89 (77.4)
26 (26.5)
Absent
163 80.7
37 (43.0)
49 (56.9)
Diastolic function
Normal
91
45.1
44 (48.9)
46 (51.1)
Impaired
111 54.9
82 (73.9)
29 (26.1)
Wall motion
Normal
193 96.5
120 (62.2)
73 (37.8)
Abnormal
7
3.5
5 (71.4)
2 (28.6)
Table 3. Prevalence, knowledge and treatment of hypertension among
201 newly diagnosed diabetic patients at Mulago Hospital
Parameters
Number
Prevalence (%) 95% CI
Hypertension
125
61.9
54.8–68.6
Systolic BP > 140 mmHg
104
51.5
45.3–59.2
Diastolic BP > 90 mmHg
92
45.5
39.3–53.2
Knowledge of hypertension
56
27.7
22.1–34.6
HTN newly diagnosed
69
34.2
27.6–39.8
ACEI/ARB use in known HTN 19
33.9
26.7–39.2
Known HTN on drugs
24
44.4
38.9–52.4
Known HTN not on drugs
30
55.6
47.2–62.1
HTN: hypertension, ACEI: ace inhibitor, ARB: angiotensin receptor blocker.