Abstract

PREVALENCE OF PREHYPERTENSION AND THE NEAR TERM RISK OF DEVELOPING HYPERTENSION AMONG ARABIAN GULF UNIVERSITY MEDICAL STUDENTS IN THE KINGDOM OF BAHRAIN FOR THE YEAR 2011-2012

Aysha Nabeel Khonji*, Fatema Nabeel Khonji, Dalal Adel Aljasem, Shereen Mohamed Saleh, Leen Abdulelah Murshid, Bashaer Ibrahim Otayn, Layla Mohamed Hasan and Heba Mohamed Hamada

Abstract

This research mainly aims to estimate the prevalence of prehypertension among medical students in the Arabian Gulf University (AGU) in the Kingdom of Bahrain for the year 2011- 2012. It also provides a baseline data of the blood pressure status among medical students above 20 years in the University. This includes identifying the factors contributing to the blood pressure variation. Also acknowledging the near-term risk of developing hypertension in the upcoming first, second and fourth years by using the risk score.[1] The method used in this research was multistage stratified sampling from the population. The procedure included going to the administration and registration unit of the university, which supplied a table of information regarding the number, the gender and date of birth of the students in each academic year. Before the actual study took place, a pilot study was done and the research data was entered and analyzed by SPSS 16. As for the principle results, we concluded that the prevalence of prehypertension among AGU medical students in the Kingdom of Bahrain, who aged 20 years and above was found to be 37.35%, with a gradual increase of the mean risk of developing hypertension as a student moved from one academic year to the next. According to our study, there is a significant positive association between blood pressure status with BMI and with gender.

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