{"doi":"10.1371/journal.pgph.0001686","title":"Hypertension among persons living with HIV—Zambia, 2021; A cross-sectional study of a national electronic health record system","abstract":"Hypertension is a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease, which is a common cause of death in Zambia. Data on hypertension prevalence in Zambia are scarce and limited to specific geographic areas and/or populations. We measured hypertension prevalence among persons living with HIV (PLHIV) in Zambia using a national electronic health record (EHR) system. We did a cross-sectional study of hypertension prevalence among PLHIV aged ≥18 years during 2021. Data were extracted from the SmartCare EHR, which covers ~90% of PLHIV on treatment in Zambia. PLHIV with ≥2 clinical visits in 2021 were included. Hypertension was defined as ≥2 elevated blood pressure readings (systolic ≥140 mmHg/diastolic ≥90 mmHg) during 2021 and/or on anti-hypertensive medication recorded in their EHR ≤5 years. Logistic regression was used to assess for associations between hypertension and demographic characteristics. Among 750,098 PLHIV aged ≥18 years with ≥2 visits during 2021, 101,363 (13.5%) had ≥2 recorded blood pressure readings. Among these PLHIV, 14.7% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 14.5–14.9) had hypertension. Only 8.9% of PLHIV with hypertension had an anti-hypertensive medication recorded in their EHR. The odds of hypertension were greater in older age groups compared to PLHIV aged 18–29 years (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] for 30–44 years: 2.6 [95% CI: 2.4–2.9]; aOR for 45–49 years: 6.4 [95% CI: 5.8–7.0]; aOR for ≥60 years: 14.5 [95% CI: 13.1–16.1]), urban areas (aOR: 1.9 [95% CI: 1.8–2.1]), and on ART for ≥6-month at a time (aOR: 1.1 [95% CI: 1.0–1.2]). Hypertension was common among PLHIV in Zambia, with few having documentation of treatment. Most PLHIV were excluded from the analysis because of missing BP measurements. Strengthening integrated management of non-communicable diseases in HIV clinics might help to diagnose and treat hypertension in Zambia. Addressing missing data of routine clinical data (like blood pressure) could improve non-communicable diseases surveillance in Zambia.","journal":"PLOS Global Public Health","year":2023,"id":351386,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":9,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.7465,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2023-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":975010,"name":"José Tomás Prieto","orcid":"0000-0002-5156-395X","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":975008,"name":"Megumi Itoh","orcid":"0000-0003-3736-6287","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":910706,"name":"Sombo Fwoloshi","orcid":null,"position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1094245,"name":"Khozya Zyambo","orcid":"0000-0002-3813-2784","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":910159,"name":"Suilanji Sivile","orcid":"0009-0005-3072-475X","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":540850,"name":"Aggrey Mweemba","orcid":"0000-0002-8995-0752","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1096441,"name":"Paul Chisemba","orcid":null,"position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1096442,"name":"Ernest Kakoma","orcid":null,"position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1096073,"name":"Dalila Zachary","orcid":"0000-0002-0977-9538","position":9,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1096443,"name":"Cecilia Chitambala","orcid":null,"position":10,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":579480,"name":"Peter A. Minchella","orcid":"0000-0002-6295-0998","position":11,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":415447,"name":"Lloyd Mulenga","orcid":"0000-0002-1044-4209","position":12,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1096074,"name":"Simon Agolory","orcid":"0000-0001-5023-5754","position":13,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":975009,"name":"Jonas Z. Hines","orcid":"0000-0002-4877-0333","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":45,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T01:12:41.740237Z","pmid":null,"pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}