Medical Comorbidities and Physical Disability amongHypertensive Patients from a Teaching Hospital Clinicin Enugu, South East Nigeria

Introduction: Physical disability in hypertension may be due to medical comorbidities and the complications of hypertension. It may pose limitations in blood pressure control in Sub Saharan Africa because of added cost of treatment. Little is known about the pattern of medical comorbidities and disability among hypertensive patients in south East Nigeria. Methods: This was study cross sectional and descriptive study conducted in the medical outpatient clinic of Enugu State University Teaching Hospital, Enugu Nigeria. Data was collected using a semi structured questionnaire. Level of Physical disability was estimated using the Barthel Index of Activities of Daily Living score. Data was analyzed using SPSS software. Results: A total of 436 subjects were surveyed. Males and females were 161 (36.9%) and 275 (63.1%) respectively with a male to female ratio was 1:1.7. Most patients 379 (86.9%) had at least one comorbidity with most of them having two (30.3%). A total of 234 (53.7%) areas of dependency were reported in 69 (15.8%) individuals with an average of 3.4 per individual. The most frequent areas of disability among the 69 were mobility: stair climbing (66.7%), ambulation (58%) and transfers (27.5%). Severe disability was significantly more common in males and increased with age. In bivariate correlation analysis, age, history of stroke, use of herbal drugs positively correlated with the level of disability. BMI negatively correlated with level of dependence. Conclusions: Patients with hypertension have high rates of disability and comorbidities especially in the elderly. Measures targeted towards improving adherence and treatment of comorbidities should be developed for these centers.