A comparative study of hypertension, diabetes mellitus and obesity among Malaysians in urban regions - A cross sectional study

Abstract

The objective is to study the relationship between age, gender and race with the prevalence of hypertension, diabetes mellitus (DM) and obesity in the urban population. Relationships of these three main diseases in the country were also studied. A cross sectional study was conducted among 862 Malaysian citizens in Kuala Lumpur and Selangor region who were 10 years old and above. Standard procedure of blood pressure (BP) measurement was used based on the American Heart Association guidelines. Fasting blood glucose was measured using glucometer and Body Mass Index (BMI) was also calculated. Throughout the study, health awareness was the lowest among urban Chinese and highest among younger age group, 10-30 (46.06%). The mean BP classification was 2 (pre-hypertension) according to the JNC VII classification. 15.7% of the participants have hypertension. Percentage of hypertension in Malays, Chinese and Indians are 17.1%, 11.1% and 10.6% respectively. Males have higher percentage of hypertension, 23.2% compared to females with 11.51%. A growing trend of younger age group having hypertension was noted in age groups 10 – 19 (2.96%) and 20 – 29 (8.25%). Fasting blood glucose level showed 20.65% of the total participants were diabetic. The Malays recorded highest percentage of DM, which is 22.14%, meanwhile Chinese, 17.78% and Indians, 15.23%. The younger generation comprising age groups 10–19 and 20– 29 prevalence of DM were 6.9% and 6.7% respectively. 25.5% of males have DM compared to females, 17.99%. The overall percentage of obese participants is 18.56%. The participants’ BMI were classified according to the WHO criteria. Malays were found to have the highest percentage of obesity with 79.375%, followed by Indians, 13.75% and Chinese, 6.25% out of overall participants affected by obesity. In the study, 19.93% of male participants and 17.81% of female participants were obese. Age group of 50–59 years showed highest percentage of obese participants. Among the participants, 24.7% who have hypertension also have DM. 30% of the hypertensive participants and 33.75% of diabetic participants were obese. Variables such as age and gender are related to the three diseases were studied. Thus, more health awareness should be conducted in the urban regions targeting the high risk groups.