Abstract

Background: Blood pressure is the force exerted by circulating blood against the walls of the major blood vessels in the body. Hypertension (HTN) is the most common cardiovascular disorder affecting about one billion people worldwide today. It is also one of the leading contributor of global burden of disease and mortality. The prevalence of HTN in Diabetes in Cameroon is 31%. Aim: This study sought to estimate the prevalence of HTN among type 2 diabetics in Fako Division and to determine follow up care by nurses. Methods: The study employed a retrospective and observational study design to investigate the prevalence and risk factors, and assess follow up care amongst nurses. Purposive sampling technique was used to choose the hospitals with diabetic centers and select the nurses for the study. The hospitals included the Buea and Limbe Regional Hospitals (RHB) (RHL) and the Baptist Hospital Mutengene (BHM) Fako Division, South West Region of Cameroon. All registers for the year 2022 at the diabetic centers were studied. Patients’ information from the registers which met the inclusion criterion were extracted using an extraction sheet and entered into the Epic data spreadsheet for analysis. The participants were observed using an observational checklist. Data was analyzed using SPSS version 21.0, Chi square test was run at 95% confidence level and p-values were gotten (p>0.05 was considered insignificant and p<0.05 was considered statistically significant). Multivariate analysis was done to get critical predictors. Results: The analysis showed that overall, the prevalence of hypertension amongst diabetics in the RHL, RHB and BHM was above 50% and was highest in Buea Regional Hospital with 78.6%, followed by Limbe Regional Hospital (49.3%) and then Baptist Hospital Mutengene (20.8%). An association done between socio-demographic characteristics of diabetics and those with hypertension, revealed that health facility, weight, sedentary nature of occupation and age were statistically significant with p-values 0.000, 0.000, and 0.000 respectively. Results of Multivariate analysis showed that sedentary nature of occupation and age were critical predictors of hypertension in diabetes. Nurses were found to follow up patients adequately. Conclusion: This study showed a high prevalence of 59.6% of Hypertension (HTN) among type 2 diabetics in the three selected hospitals in Fako Division, the risks factors of HTN among diabetes are sedentary nature of occupation and age. There is adequate follow up care of HTN in diabetics.

Keywords

Diabetes, Fako Division, hypertension, prevalence and risk factors