The prevalence and associated factors of antihypertensive medication use in urban and rural community-dwelling elderly with hypertension in Lu'an City

Objective To investigate the prevalence and associated factors of antihypertensive medication use in urban and rural community-dwelling elderly with hypertension. Methods A total of 1 080 elderly people from two communities in urban and rural areas in Lu'an City, Anhui Province were invited to participate in the questionnaire and physical examination. Results Of 1 080 elderly people, 1 029 with complete data were analyzed, including 669 patients with hypertension. The prevalence of antihypertensive medication use was 43.6% (292/669), and 68.9% (461/669) patients knew they had suffered from hypertension, of which the prevalence of antihypertensive medication use was 63.3% (292/461). The prevalence of antihypertensive medication use among hypertensive patients was higher in urban community than in rural community, and the difference was statistically significant (χ²=216.267,P<0.001). No statistically significant difference was found between males and females in the prevalence of antihypertensive medication use (χ²=0.122,P=0.727).Although there was a trend of increasing prevalence with age for antihypertensive medication use, no statistically significance was observed (χ²=5.581,P=0.061). The multivariate Logistic regression analysis showed that the possibility of antihypertensive medication use among elderly patients in urban community was 8.290 times (95% CI:4.809-14.290,P<0.001) campared with patients with hypertension in rural community. Compared to the agricultural or forestry personnels, the possibility of antihypertensive medication use among elderly from state-owned enterprises or professional and technical personnels and commercial and service personnels was 1.959 times (95% CI:1.067-3.597,P=0.030) and 2.906 times (95% CI:1.297-6.513,P=0.010). Compared to patients without family history of hypertension, the possibility of antihypertensive medication use among patients with family history of hypertension was 1.571 times (95% CI:1.053-2.343,P=0.027). Conclusions The prevalence of antihypertensive medication use among urban and rural community-dwelling elderly with hypertension is low, especially for elderly without family history of hypertension or from rural community. More attention should be paid to improving their prevalence of antihypertensive medication use.