ACCURACY OF SELF-REPORTED HYPERTENSION AMONG VIETNAMESE ADULTS: A CROSS-SECTIONAL STUDY

Abstract

Background: This study aims to determine the validity of self-reported hypertension and to identify factors affecting discordance between self-reported hypertension and objective measures of blood pressure among adults in Vietnam.

Materials and Methods: A total of 4,219 people 18 years old and above reported their hypertension status and had their blood pressure measured. The inter-reliability between self-reported hypertension and measured hypertension was assessed using Cohen’s kappa statistics. The univariate and multivariate logistic regressions were used to examine the affecting factors of discordance.

Result: Self-reported hypertension prevalence was 13.2% (557/4,219) while measured hypertension was 20.9 % (881/4,219). An agreement between self-reported and measured data was moderate for hypertension of participants (κ=0.39, 95% CI 0.36-0.43). Self-reports for hypertension showed high specificity (93.9 %, 95% CI 93.0-94.7) but low sensitivity (40.1%; 95 CI 36.8-43.4). Percentage of decordance of hypertension (number of false positives and false negatives between self-reported and measured data) among adults in Vietnam was 17.3%. Multiple analysis showed that younger respondents, who were female, who were Kinh ethnicity, who were senior officials and professionals, BMI lower than 25 showing stronger agreements than their counterparts.

Conclusion: In this study, our findings showed there was the discordance of hypertension between self-reported and measured data. The discordance of hypertension was observed more frequently in men, people older than 40, minority ethnic groups, farmers and who has BMI mỏe than 25kg/m².

Keywords: Accuracy, Hypertension, Self-report, Adults, Vietnam