Smoking, alcohol and hypertension

Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) are important causes of global preventable morbidity and mortality in which hypertension is an important public health concern worldwide being responsible for an annual death of 7.1 million. Researchers recognize that smoking is common among drinkers and that it is a strong risk factor for heart disease that could enhancethe true effect of alcohol consumption which itself can lead to the development of hypertension and other cardiovascular ailments. However, CVD presents differently in men and women and there is evidence that treatment efficacy is different between genders. Objective: The present study was undertaken to study the prevalence of hypertension and its associated factors viz. age, gender, smoking and alcohol among rural population of South India. Method: The current research was a questionnaire based study carried out in two phases with Blood Pressure measurement. Result: The study results showed that reasonable number of individuals were either hypertensive or in the risk of development of hypertension, in which the prevalence of hypertension was more in females with advancing age and with the exposure to risk factors i.e. alcohol and smoking. With increase in smoking there was increase in the incidence of pre-hypertension and hypertension, majority of the study population was non-alcoholic and most of the population with pre-hypertension and hypertension were in the same group, with alcoholics it was observed that the incidence of hypertension and pre-hypertension increases with the increase in the alcohol consumption. Conclusion: The study concluded with direct relationship between the risk factors and hypertension.