Prevalent Long-Term Trends of Hypertension in Austria: The Impact of Obesity and Socio-Demography

Background: Globally there are only less long-term-studies on hypertension available to provide reliable estimates and identify risk groups. This study aims to analyse the prevalence and long-term-trend of hypertension in Austria, recognize affected subpopulations and investigate social inequalities. Methods: This representative population-based study is based on self-reported data of adults (mean age: 47.7 ± 17.5; n = 178,818) that were taken from five health surveys between 1973 and 2007. An adjustment of self-reported BMI was performed based on a preliminary validation study. Absolute changes (AC) and aetiologic fractions (AF) were calculated from logistic regressions in order to measure trends. To quantify the extent of social inequality, a relative index of inequality (RII) was computed. Results: During the study period the age-standardized hypertension prevalence increased from 1.0% to 18.8%, with a considerable rise from 1991 onwards. There was a positive trend in all subpopulations, with the highest AC among obese women (+50.2%) and obese subjects aged 75 years and older (+54.4%), whereas the highest risk was observed among the youngest obese adults (AF: 99.4%). The RII for hypertension was higher for women than men, but in general unstable during the investigation period. Conclusions: Obesity and older age are significant factors for increased morbidity of hypertension. The most undesirable trends occurred in obese women and obese subjects aged 75 years and older. These risk groups should be given special attention when planning hypertension prevention programs. The high increase in the prevalence of hypertension is due to different aspects, e.g. a demographic change and a change in the definition of hypertension. These findings help to understand why hypertension is becoming more common in the Austrian population.