OBJECTIVETo explore the association between socioeconomic status (SES) and blood pressure control in diagnosed hypertension patients.

METHODSThe database of Zhejiang provincial survey on metabolic syndrome which implemented in 2010 in which prior hypoertensive patients were brought into this sutdy. Descriptive statistics were applied to test the distributive differences of relevant factors (age, sex, marital status, hypertension duration, BMI, education level, per capita household yearly income, smoking, alcohol drinking, fruit and vegetable intake) between patients with optimally-controlled blood pressure and those without. The SES of diagnosed hypertension patients was measured separately by two common indicators: education level and the per capita household yearly income. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression models were used to differentiate the association between those two SES indicators and blood pressure control, and the trend of the association was also tested.

RESULTSTotally, 2 394 hypertension patients were diagnosed and identified. Of the patients analysed, the overall mean was (61.53 ± 10.64) years, and 55.7% (1 334 cases) had ≤ 5 years' disease duration. 1 090 achieved optimal blood pressure control, which accounted for a proportion of 45.5%. 1 676 had elementary school education and below, accounting for 70.1%. The patients with per capita household yearly income of < 5 000 Yuan and 5 000-14 999 Yuan groups were 401 (29.4%) and 690 (50.5%) respectively. 416 (17.4%) were smokers and 541 (22.6%) were alcohol drinkers. Based on the statistical tests, we found that the distributions of age, marital status, hypertension duration, body mass index, smoking and alcohol drinking were different between two groups (t or χ² values were 4.57, 5.44, 6.40, 6.21, 5.99, 3.98, respectively, all P values were < 0.05). Optical blood pressure control in higer education level group was significantly better than that of in lower education level (χ² = 12.65, P < 0.001), and there was no statistical significance association between per capita household yearly income and optimal blood pressure control (χ² = 2.78, P = 0.249). Multivariate logistic regression models revealed that, of those two SES indicators, a positive association was shown between education level and optimal blood pressure control: compared with patients in the category of 'elementary school and below, those of 'junior high school and above observed an OR of 1.40 (95% CI: 1.09-1.81). And in further trend χ² test, we identified a trend of such association (χ² trend = 12.74, P = 0.002). However, no significant association has been recognized between per capita household yearly income and optimal blood pressure control: compared with patients in the category of < 5 000 Yuan group, those of 5 000-14 999 Yuan and ≥ 15 000 Yuan groups had OR of 0.93 (95% CI: 0.72-1.20) and 1.04 (95% CI: 0.83-1.31) respectively.

CONCLUSIONAmong all diagnosed hypertension patients, those with lower education level have poorer blood pressure control and should be labelled as the key population for intense health education and standardized management to improve their blood pressure control status.