Turkish Journal of
GERIATRICS

İstanbul Tıp Fakültesi Halk sağlığı Anabilim Dalı, İstanbul Hypertension is a social health problem prevalence of which increases with ageing. It is a serious disease that must not be underestimated, causing mortal complications like ischemic hearth diseases, cerebrovascular diseases etc. or organ handicaps. The study aimed to determine, with cross sectional analytic method, the prevalence of hypertension, risk factors and their interrelationships in the population above 64 years old in Presidency of Kucukcekmece Regional Health Department in 1 September 1998 - 28 February 1999. Arterial blood pressures of 354 participants who are registered in the region and selected by 1/10 systematic sampling method were measured and a questionnaire interrogating demographic features and known chronicle conditions was conducted by means of face-to-face interviews. According to questionnaire results, the hypertension prevalence, which is actually 15 %, was found to be 68.1 % in all individuals above 64 years old. Out of elderly people 31.9% were normotensive, 12.1% were systolic hypertension, 7.9% were diastolic hypertension, 42.9% were systolo-diastolic hypertension and 5.1% were malignant hypertension. When hypertensive individuals have been compared in respect of age, gender, educational level, marital status, diabetes mellitus, cardiac failure, chronic obstructive lung disease, and sleep disorders with non - hypertensive ones by means of Logistic Regression Analyses, the cases with chronic obstructive lung diseases ( OR = 3.91, 95 % Cl = 1.53 - 9.97; p = 0.004 ) and cardiac failure ( OR = 2.11, 95 % Cl - 1.06 -4.21; p = 0.03 ) were more frequent in hypertensive group. Consequently, the hypertension prevalence among elderly in the study region was high. This result draws the attention once again to the fact that the screening for hypertension among the elderly people is necessary. Keywords : Elderly, hypertension, screening, chronic diseases, sleep disorders