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PREVALENCE OF HYPERTENSION AND DIABETES MELLITUS AS A COMORBIDITY AMONG YOUNG WOMEN OF REPRODUCTIVE AGE: A CROSS-SECTIONAL ANALYSIS

Zahid Idrees

Objectives: To evaluate the prevalence of hypertension and diabetes as a comorbidity among young women of reproductive health. Methodology: A prospective observational study was conducted at Liaquat University of Medical & Health Sciences, from April 2018 to June 2019, on women of ages between 18 to 45 years who presented to the outpatients department for regular check-ups or follow-ups were included in the study. All patients who refused to take part, or were older than 45 years of age were excluded from the study. Data on demographic variables and presence of hypertension and/or diabetes was recorded. All data was processed via SPSS v. 25. A p-value of <0.05 was considered significant. Results: A total of 444 female population of reproductive age enrolled in the present study with a mean age of 31.6 + 12.3 years. In the present study, a body mass index (BMI) of 29.3 ± 5.2 kg/m2 was observed. 70 (15.6%) participants in our study smoked daily, while 374 (84.4%) never smoked. We estimated that 9 (2.0%) women in our study had hypertension and diabetes as comorbidity. About 229 women were normotensive and normoglycemic, while 55 women with normal blood pressure were prediabetic while 41 women with prediabetes were prehypertensive as well. Conclusion: The increasing prevalence of comorbid conditions during women’s reproductive age is a threat to healthy neonatal and maternal outcome. Therefore, serious primary care intervention is needed to reduce prevalence and to improve awareness, detection and management of hypertension and diabetes as comorbid conditions. Keywords: diabetes mellitus, DM type II, hypertension, comorbidity, mortality, reproductive health