LAUSR

Objective: High blood pressure is the number one chronic disease in the world. He is a silent killer, who acts in the shadows. One in three adults suffer from high blood pressure, a medical condition responsible for around half of deaths from stroke and heart disease. The objective of our study was to know the characteristics of arterial hypertension at the University Hospital Center of TLEMCEN. Design and method: Prospective descriptive study, involving a sample of hypertensive patients at the TLEMCEN University Hospital for a period of 05 months. A questionnaire was administered to the patients. Data were entered and analyzed using Epi-info 6 software. Results: The study concerned 130 hypertensive patients with a sex ratio of 0.8. The average age was 63.77 ± 13.87 years with a minimum of 15 and a maximum of 93 years. 77.7% of the patients were married, 70% illiterate, 56.20% without profession and 69% had a low socio-economic level. The associated risk factors found can be summarized as follows: stress was found in 83%, ¼ of the population studied were smokers, 1/3 obese (BMI> 30 kg/m2) and 26.2% diabetics. The average duration of hypertension was 05.26 ± 05.85 years with a minimum of one month and a maximum of 30 years. Hypertension was treated and monitored in 96.2% of cases. 86.2% had health insurance. Hypertension in the family was found in 69 subjects (53.07%). Conclusions: The recognition of hypertension offers the opportunity to screen all the vascular risk factors at the individual level. Treating high blood pressure is not very difficult or very restrictive. The difficulty remains to properly treat a disease, when one does not feel sick.