The association between living with a disability and undiagnosed hypertension amongst South African males aged 15 years and older

Abstract

Background: Hypertension is a major global issue affecting more than 1 billion people worldwide. Hypertension trends have shifted from being concentrated in high-income countries to a high prevalence in low- and middle-income countries. The World Health Organisations reports that 46% of those living with hypertension globally are unaware of their condition. Although there is adequate literature revealing that men are disproportionately (51%) affected by undiagnosed hypertension on a global scale with low hypertension treatment and control rates, and there is also enough empirical evidence on limitations towards health care access among the disabled populations; scant research has been conducted on the association between disability and undiagnosed hypertension. In South Africa, no study has addressed the prevalence of hypertension among people living with a disability, and neither has any study examined the association between living with a disability and undiagnosed hypertension. Objective: This study aimed to determine the association between living with a disability and undiagnosed hypertension amongst South African males aged 15 years and older. Methodology: The data source used in this study is the South African Demographic and Health Survey collected in 2016. The weighted sampled size of this study is 1014 from men who participated in DHS 2016. The main independent variable in this study was disability status, and the outcome of interest was undiagnosed hypertension. The prevalence formula, Pearson’s chi-square test, and binary logistic regression models were used to determine the prevalence, statistical significance, and association between undiagnosed hypertension and living with disability amongst men in South Africa. Results: The study found that 66% of the South African male population had undiagnosed hypertension. The prevalence of undiagnosed hypertension was highest among non-disabled men (70%). The multivariate analysis showed that there is an association between living with a disability and undiagnosed hypertension with men living with a disability being [AOR: 0.65; P<0.05; CI:0.44-0.95] less likely to have undiagnosed hypertension. The youthful age groups (15-24; 25-34 and 35-44) were significantly more likely to live with undiagnosed hypertension. Men who were in the overweight and underweight BMI category, and who were educated were significantly less likely to have undiagnosed hypertension (P<0.05). Men residing in the Free State and Mpumalanga province were significantly more likely to have undiagnosed hypertension. The study also showed statistically significant likelihood for employed to experience undiagnosed hypertension. Conclusion: This study showed that disabled men are at a reduced risk of living with undiagnosed hypertension compared to non-disabled men in South Africa. Therefore, the country should increase its hypertension detection in the general population to reduce the high rates of undiagnosed hypertension.