This cross-sectional study aimed at estimating prevalence, awareness, treatment, control, and predictors of hypertension among Saudi adult population. Multistage stratified sampling was used to select 4758 adult participants. Three blood pressure measurements using an automatic sphygmomanometer, sociodemographics, and antihypertensive modalities were obtained. The overall prevalence of hypertension was 25.5%. Only 44.7% of hypertensives were aware, 71.8% of them received pharmacotherapy, and only 37.0% were controlled. Awareness was significantly associated with gender, age, geographical location, occupation, and comorbidity. Applying drug treatment was significantly more among older patients, but control was significantly higher among younger patients and patients with higher level of physical activity. Significant predictors of hypertension included male gender, urbanization, low education, low physical activity, obesity, diabetes, and hypercholesterolemia. In conclusion prevalence is high, but awareness, treatment, and control levels are low indicating a need to develop a national program for prevention, early detection, and control of hypertension. 1. Introduction The importance of high blood pressure as a major cause of common serious diseases and deaths has been recognized in most countries particularly Western countries [1]. Hypertension affects more than a quarter of the global adult population including Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). It is projected in year 2025 to increase by 24% in developed countries and 80% in developing countries [2]. The increase is expected to be much higher than these projections [3]. National surveys of prevalence, awareness, treatment, and control provide basis for assessing the burden of hypertension in the community. These surveys showed that many hypertensives were unaware of their disease, many of the aware were not on treatment, and many of the treated are not controlled particularly in developing countries [4–6]. The increase in hypertension prevalence will invariably lead to dramatic rises in the incidence of cardiovascular diseases and their consequences, which has the potential to overwhelm health care systems [3]. It will also have financial implications for provincial drug plans because there is increasing evidence that the majority of patients with hypertension will require two or more drugs to achieve blood pressure control [7]. Hence it is vital to assess the burden of hypertension and associated risk factors as a prerequisite for meaningful prevention and control strategies. The present study aims at
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