Factors Associated with Stroke in Hypertensive Patients, Buengkan Province

Abstract

This matched case-control study aimed to explore the relationship between factors related to health behavior and personal factors leading to the development of stroke among patients with hypertension in Buengkan Province. The sample group consisted of patients with hypertension who had registered for treatment at Chronic Disease Clinic, Medical Department at Buengkan Hospital anytime from October 1st, 2015 to September 30th, 2016. The patients were divided into two groups: a case group consisting of 56 patients with hypertension and stroke, and a control group consisting of 112 hypertension patients who had not experienced stroke. The case and control were matched by sex and age. The data was collected by interview and analyzed using both descriptive and analytic statistics. Conditional logistic regression was used to investigate the relationship between factors with significance at p<0.05.
The study showed statistical significance for certain factors relating to the development of stroke in patients with hypertension (p<0.05), including excess body mass index, or BMI (mORadj=3.24, 95%CI=1.13-9.23); the duration of having hypertension less than 5 years (mORadj=4.55, 95%CI=1.45-14.20); having a smoking habit (mORadj=6.19, 95%CI=1.02-37.42), and having a drinking habit (mORadj=17.09, 95%CI=4.40-66.38).
Health policy planning on stroke prevention and control should attend more holistically to caring for patients who have experienced hypertension for less than 5 years with excess body mass index, providing health education to help them change and create more appropriate health behaviors. An effort should also be made to help patients avoid risk behaviors, such as drinking alcohol and smoking. This would help to prevent stroke among hypertension patients.