ABSTRACT
Like hypertension, adults with prehypertension are known to have higher prevalence of other cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors, with about 93% of prehypertensive subjects having more than one other CVD risk factors and it progress to hypertension over time. It is also associated with sub-clinical CVD. Hypertension is now recognized as one of the most important CVD contributing about 40% of these diseases in the continent of Africa. The aim of the study is to determine the prevalence of prehypertension among adults attending GOPD of Specialist hospital Bauchi. A hospital based cross sectional study with a sample size of 410 consisting of adults aged 18 years and above was carried out. Systematic random sampling was used to obtain the required sample size. The study was based on WHO and JNC-7 classification of blood pressure.4 Multi-sectional questionnaires was administered to collect information. Bivariate analysis of the association between the explanatory and outcome variable were carried out and assessed using Odds ratio with 95% confidence interval; variables in a binary screening found at p-value ≤ 0.005 are found to be statistically significant. The prevalence of hypertension and prehypertension among the study participants was found to be 29.9% and 57.8% respectively. And the prevalence of hypertension and prehypertension among males is higher than in females (59.3% and 55.8%) and (34.6% and 23. 6%).There is statistical association with some socio demographic variables like age, sex, as well as family history of some medical conditions like hypertension, sudden death, stroke and diabetics. The study revealed that the socio-behavioral risk factors for hypertension were common, so provision of health education & setting up of and strength a surveillance system for hypertension and its risk factors and further extended studies including biological risk factors; is necessary to reduce the burden of hypertension in the survey population. Keywords: Adult Prehypertension, hypertension, Determinants.