Hypertension and Physical Intimate Partner Violence among Female HIV Patients in Butiama District, North-Western Tanzania

Abstract

Highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) has greatly improved life expectancy and quality of life among people living with HIV. However, hypertension has been reported to increase among HIV patients. Yet the exact cause has not been established. We conducted a cross-sectional study involving female HIV-infected patients on ART who attended care and treatment clinics (CTCs) between August 2020 to December 2020. The participants were consecutively enrolled until the targeted sample size was attained. Hypertension was defined as systolic blood pressure (SBP) ≥ 140mmHg and, diastolic blood pressure (DBP) ≥ 90mmHg. The exposure variable of interest was self-reported physical intimate partner violence in the last 12 months which was collected and defined according to World Health Organization (WHO) criteria. We investigated 526 female HIV patients on ART with a mean age of 42.8 years. Of all participants, 87.1% were peasants, about 60% were greater than 60 years old and 22.5% were currently consuming alcohol.  23.8 % of the participants had reported a history of physical intimate partner violence in the last 12 months. The overall prevalence of hypertension in female HIV patients on ART was 31.4% and it was not statistically significant associated with physical intimate partner violence in the last 12 months before and after adjusting for other covariates. The prevalence of hypertension in female HIV patients on ART was higher but was not found to be influenced by physical intimate partner violence in the last 12 months. Further studies are recommended to investigate the influence of physical violence on hypertension among HIV patients.