SEX-DIFFERENCES IN AWARENESS AND CONTROL OF HYPERTENSION IN FRANCE

Objective To assess the prevalence, awareness, treatment and control o f hypertension for men and women living in three French regions. Desig n A cross-sectional population survey. Setting Subjects in the World H ealth Organization Monitoring Trends and Determinants in Cardiovascula r Disease population surveys of Bas-Rhin, the urban community of Lille and Haute-Garonne, France. Subjects We studied 1924 men and 1874 wome n aged 35-64 years. Main outcome measures Hypertension was defined as a systolic blood pressure greater than or equal to 160 mmHg, a diastol ic blood pressure greater than or equal to 95 mmHg, being administered antihypertensive drug treatment or any combination of the foregoing. Treated hypertensive subjects were considered controlled if their syst olic blood pressure was <160 mmHg and their diastolic blood pressure w as <95 mmHg. Results The prevalence of hypertension was 40.2, 43.8 and 27.7% among men in Lille, Bas-Rhin and Haute-Garonne, respectively. F or women, the corresponding values were 31.5, 33.8 and 18.9%. Among hy pertensive men, 51.8% were aware of their condition, 30.0% were being administered drug treatment and 9.2% were controlled; the respective v alues for hypertensive women were 69.8, 51.2 and 25.3% (P < 0.001). Aw areness of hypertension was associated with antihypertensive treatment more commonly in Haute-Garonne (81.0% for men and 84.7% for women). T he percentages of treated subjects in whom adequate control of the blo od pressure had been achieved were only 30.7% for men and 49.4% for wo men. Conclusion Women have a better awareness of hypertension than do men and their hypertension is controlled better but the low rate of co ntrol for both sexes calls for further improvements.