ARTERIAL-HYPERTENSION IN SAUDI-ARABIA

A cross-sectional population-based survey employing a cluster sampling method and household visits by trained health teams investigated hype rtension prevalence in the Kingdom among 13,700 individuals of both se xes in all age groups. The World Health Organization (WHO) definition of hypertension of integral 160/95 mmHg was used; it was found that 9. 1% and 8.7% of the total sample investigated were systolic and diastol ic hypertensives, respectively. However, 12.4% and 7.9% of children yo unger than 18 years were systolic and diastolic hypertensive. Among ad ults aged 18 years and above, 5.3% were systolic and 7.3% were diastol ic hypertensives; 87.5% of systolic and 79.4% of diastolic hypertensiv es were aged 40 years and over. Females had statistically significant elevated systolic hypertension compared with males (P < 0.01). However , if blood pressure integral 140/90 mmHg is used as a criterion for hy pertension definition, the prevalence among the latter age groups woul d be 20.4% for systolic and 25.9% for diastolic hypertension. The prev alence of Isolated Systolic Hypertension (ISH), Isolated Diastolic Hyp ertension (IDH) and Systolic Diostolic Hypertension (SDH among adults above 18 years was 1.8%, 3.8% and 3.5% respectively. ISH was higher am ong females compared with males (2% vs 1.4%), while IDH was higher amo ng males than females (4.4% vs 3.4%). There is a need for tracking chi ldhood hypertension, which could provide long-term analysis for risk o f adult hypertension.