STATE-WIDE HYPERTENSION AND DIABETES SCREENING
Introduction
Hypertension or High Blood Pressure is a chronic medical condition in which the systemic arterial blood pressure is raised. Hypertension is classified as either primary/essential hypertension or secondary hypertension. About 90–95% of cases are categorized as “primary hypertension,” which means high blood pressure with no obvious medical cause. The remaining 5–10% of cases is caused by other conditions that affect the kidneys, arteries, heart or endocrine system and this is referred to as secondary hypertension1.
Diabetes Mellitus, often simply referred to as diabetes—is a group of diseases in which a person has high blood sugar, either because the body does not produce enoughinsulin, or because cells do not respond to the insulin that is produced. This high blood sugar produces the classical symptoms of frequent urination (polyuria), increased thirst (polydypsia) and increased hunger (polyphagia)2.
As of 2013 at least 382 million people worldwide suffer from diabetes for a prevalence of 8.3% of the population3 and nearly one billion people, a prevalence of ≈26% of the adult population has hypertension worldwide as at 20084. According to the Nigerian Medical Association, the number of individuals living with hypertension is estimated at 56 million5 while 6 million individuals were affected with diabetes as at 20116.
As obtained from the Lagos State-wide hypertension and diabetes screening programme in 2013, the prevalence of hypertension in State was 18.1% while that of diabetes was 4.2%.
The State-wide Hypertension and Diabetes Awareness and Screening program “a promise fulfilled by the administration of His Excellency Babatunde Raji Fashola, SAN” is a program designed to hold annually involving all the 20 LGAs and 37 LCDAs in the State. In the past, the programme involved screening in various social clubs. However, this was discontinued as few clients came for screening during the programme. This may be attributed to a decline in evening/night outings within the State
As the name connotes, State-wide Hypertension and Diabetes Awareness and Screening program is a coordinated state-wide screening exercise for 2 major silent killers – Hypertension and Diabetes.
The program has now been incorporated into an Integrated Health Screening package referred to as the Lagos State-wide Wellness Week Screening programme. This health screening programme involves creating awareness and screening for hypertension and diabetes as well as screenings for cancers of the breast, cervix and prostate.
As these screenings are mostly performed on the same clients, it became imperative that they are done simultaneously as an Integrated Health Screening package hence, the initiative to create the Lagos State-wide Wellness Week Screening programme. The programme entailsscreening for hypertension and diabetes simultaneously in all the 57 LGAs and LCDAs while cancer of the breast, cervical and prostate screenings take place in one (1) LGA per senatorial district with their respective LCDAs covered.
Objectives of the State Wide Hypertension and Diabetes Screening Exercise
 To intensify awareness on the prevalence of hypertension and diabetes in the State.
 To detect early asymptomatic/undiagnosed cases of hypertension and diabetes especially those within the high risk group.
 To promote regular health screening among the populace.
 To reduce the incidence of sudden death especially among young people in the productive age range (mean age = 35years).
 To prevent complications through prompt and effective treatment of undiagnosed cases.
The State Government has carried out eleven screening exercises for hypertension and diabetes from 2007 till date. A total of 698,582 clients have been screened since the commencement of the exercise.
Reference
1. Carretero OA, Oparil S; Oparil (January 2000). “Essential hypertension. Part I: definition and etiology”. Circulation 101 (3): 329–35. doi:10.1161/01.CIR.101.3.329. PMID10645931.
2. World Health Organization. Global status report on Non Communicable Disease 2010.
3. Ramon Martinez. Health Intelligence: Analyzing health data, generating and communicating evidence to improve population health;www.healthintelligence.drupalgardens.com. Accessed on 28th October 2014
4. Shi, Yuankai; Hu, Frank B. “The global implications of diabetes and cancer”. The Lancet 383 (9933): 1947–8. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(14)60886-2. PMID 24910221.
5. Dr Osahon Onabulele. “57 million Nigerians are hypertensive”. www.theguardianmobile.com Accessed 28th October 2014
6. Dr Sunny Chineye. Nigerian National Diabetes Centre. www.diabetesnigeria.org.
SITE
USED
DATE 20 LGA
1ST
RND
AUG
2007 20
LGA
+ 3
S’CIAL CLUBS
2ND
RND
FEB
2008 20
LGA
+ 3
S’CIAL CLUBS
3RD
RND
MAY 2008 20
LGA
+ 3
S’CIAL CLUBS
4TH
RND
AUG 2008 20
LGA
+ 3
S’CIAL
CLUBS
5TH
RND
MAR
2009 20
LGA
+ 3
S’CIAL
CLUBS
6TH
RND
AUG
2009 20
LGA
+ 3
SOCIAL
CLUBS
7TH
RND
FEB
2010 20
LGA
+ 3
SOCIAL
CLUBS
8TH
RND
NOV
2011 20
LGA
+ 37 LCDAs
+ 3 S’CIAL CLUBS
9TH
RND
APRIL
2012 20
LGA
+
37 LCDAs
1ST RD
WELLNESS
WEEK
NOV 2013 20
LGA
+
37 LCDAs
2ND RD
WELLNESS
WEEK
DEC 2014
TOTAL
TOTAL NO SCREENED 38,865 47,407 50,598 63,761 75,624 82,425 80,191 75,645 96,468 87,598 42,463 741,045
TOTAL NO MALES SCREENED 14,829
(38%) 18,282
(38.6%) 19,366
(38.3%) 24,063
(37.8%) 27,898
(36.9%) 31,064
(37.7%) 29,377
(36.6%) 27,085
(35.8%) 33,521
(34.7%) 28,249
(32.2%) 15,271
(36.0%)
283,834
(38.3%)
TOTAL NO FEMALES SCREENED 24,038 (62%) 29,125
(61.4%) 31,232
(61.7%) 39,996
(62.7%) 47,726
(63.1%) 51,361
(62.3%) 50,814
(63.4%) 48,560
(64.2%) 62,947
(65.3%) 59,349
(67.8%) 27,192
(64.0%) 472,340
(61.7%)
NO ENCOUN-TERED
WITH HBP 8,634
(22%) 9,840
(21%) 8,763
(17.3%) 10,973
(17.2%) 14,351
(19%) 16,116
(19.6%) 11,689
(14.6%) 11,179
(14.8%) 15,845
(16.4%) 19,120
(21.8%) 8,959
(21.1%) 135,469
(18.3%)
NO ENCOUN-TERED WITH DM 2, 094 (5.4%) 2, 382
(5%) 2, 113
(4.2%) 2,035
(3.2%) 2,982
(4%) 3,501
(4.3%) 3,752
(4.7%) 3,150
(4.2%) 4,387
(4.5%) 3,240
(3.7%) 1,797
(4.2%) 31,433
(4.2%)
