%0 Journal Article %T Prevalence of Systemic Hypertension among the rural residents %A Prasanth TS %A Vijayakumar K %J Calicut Medical Journal %D 2008 %I %X Systemic Hypertension is the ¡°silent killer¡± ofour times throughout the world. It isassociated with target organ damage, suchas chronic kidney disease, coronary arterydisease, stroke and sudden death. We didthe study to analyse if there is any relationbetween age and gender in the prevalenceof systemic hypertension in rural kerala.Data was procured from the PROLIFEdatabase on non-communicable diseaseswith subjects spanning over 3422 conductedin two wards of Chemmaruthy panchayatharea, Varkala, Kerala. Blood pressure wasmeasured using OMRON electronic deviceusing house visits and analysed. It revealedthat about 33.5% of the total subjects werehypertensive with 65.6% of those above 60years affected. The prevalence increaseswith age in both genders and females aremore vulnerable after menopause. So weshould expect a catastrophic increase in thecasualties due to the complications ofhypertension in the near future in Kerala. %K Hypertension %K Kerala %K Prevalence %K Menopause %U http://www.calicutmedicaljournal.org/2008/3/e4.pdf