Factors Associated with the Occurrence of Arterial Hypertension in Industry Workers of State of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil

Background: Hypertension is a serious and persistent public health problem and is one of the main causes of cardiovascular diseases and general mortality. Objectives: This study aimed to verify the prevalence and factors associated with systemic arterial hypertension in workers from the state Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. Methods: This is a cross-sectional study using the secondary data from 20,792 industry workers from 18 to 59 years of age. The presence of arterial hypertension was determined from systolic blood pressure >= 140mmHg and/or diastolic blood pressure >= 90mmHg or taking antihypertensive medication. Factors investigated included demographic, socioeconomic, behavioral, nutritional status and family history characteristics. Poisson regression was used in multivariate analysis, adopting a significance level of p<0.05. All analyses were stratified by sex. Results: The sample included 12,349 men and 8,443 women with a mean age of 32.8 years (Standard Deviation = 9.8). The prevalence of arterial hypertension was 10.3% (95% CI: 9.8-10.7), which was significantly higher in men than in women (10.9% vs 9.4%; p = 0.001). Arterial hypertension was associated with increased age, a low level of education, living with a partner, being overweight or obese, and having at least one relative with a history of hypertension for both sexes. Women with better socioeconomic conditions presented a lower prevalence of hypertension. Conclusions: The main factors associated with hypertension included sociodemographic, nutritional, and family history characteristics. In addition, socioeconomic conditions showed an association with the occurrence of hypertension, especially among women.