Table 1

Blood pressure, history of hypertension and pre-admission antihypertensive therapy in cases and controls

VariableAllHICUMIC-1UMIC-2LMIC/LIC
CasesControlsCasesControlsCasesControlsCasesControlsCasesControls
Total13 46213 48321592160192119215077509543054307
Age—Mean (SD)62.2 (13.6)61.3 (13.3)65.3 (14.0)64.5 (13.6)65.0 (13.3)64.2 (13.1)62.4 (13.0)61.5 (12.7)59.1 (13.5)58.2 (13.2)
Systolic BP—Mean (SD)138.0 (20.8)132.2 (18.2)138.7 (22.1)134.8 (17.8)138.5 (21.9)131.5 (17.9)136.8 (19.4)132.4 (18.7)138.8 (21.2)130.8 (17.8)
 Difference case-controlΔ =+5.8Δ =+3.9Δ =+7.0Δ =+4.4Δ =+8.0
Diastolic BP—Mean (SD)81.9 (12.4)80.3 (10.6)78.3 (13.0)77.4 (10.4)80.0 (12.1)78.6 (10.7)81.7 (11.5)80.7 (10.5)84.8 (12.4)81.9 (10.3)
 Difference case-controlΔ =+1.6Δ =+0.9Δ =+1.4Δ=+0.9Δ =+2.9
ICH3057 (22.7%)159 (7.4%)188 (9.8%)1415 (27.9%)1295 (30.1%)
Knowledge that high BP is associated with increased risk of stroke9073 (69.7%)8867 (67.10%)1757 (81.8%)1862 (86.3%)1541 (80.6%)1553 (80.9%)3178 (66.2%)3407 (69.7%)2597 (62.7%)2045 (48.0%)
History of hypertension7714 (57.3%)4772 (35.4%)1245 (57.7%)799 (37.0%)1396 (72.7%)1021 (53.2%)2923 (57.6%)1788 (35.1%)2150 (49.9%)1164 (27.0%)
Preadmission antihypertensives with known hypertension4967 (36.9%)3719 (27.6%)1072 (49.7%)714 (33.1%)946 (49.2%)795 (41.4%)1782 (35.1%)1376 (27.0%)1167 (27.1%)834 (19.4%)
ACE inhibitors2063 (15.3%)1470 (10.9%)544 (25.2%)340 (15.8%)584 (30.4%)432 (22.5%)667 (13.1%)450 (8.8%)268 (6.2%)248 (5.8%)
ARB788 (5.9%)881 (6.5%)251 (11.6%)211 (9.8%)157 (8.2%)197 (10.3%)198 (3.9%)354 (6.9%)182 (4.2%)119 (2.8%)
ACE inhibitor or ARB2773 (20.6%)2290 (17.0%)769 (35.6%)537 (24.9%)724 (37.7%)616 (32.1%)848 (16.7%)782 (15.4%)432 (10.0%)355 (8.2%)
Beta blocker1880 (14.0%)1279 (9.5%)611 (28.3%)334 (15.5%)495 (25.8%)394 (20.5%)240 (4.7%)247 (4.8%)534 (12.4%)304 (7.1%)
Calcium channel blocker2015 (15.0%)1526 (11.3%)399 (18.5%)235 (10.9%)239 (12.5%)226 (11.8%)876 (17.3%)726 (14.3%)501 (11.6%)339 (7.9%)
Diuretic1492 (11.1%)1052 (7.8%)462 (21.4%)305 (14.1%)351 (18.3%)284 (14.8%)416 (8.2%)303 (5.9%)263 (6.1%)160 (3.7%)
Alpha blocker184 (1.4%)133 (1.0%)65 (3.0%)37 (1.7%)40 (2.1%)41 (2.1%)61 (1.2%)34 (0.7%)18 (0.4%)21 (0.5%)
  • Categorisation of economic level of country was based on information from World Bank in 2010, which represented the mid-interval of recruitment to the study. As the largest proportion of countries belonged to the upper middle-income category, we divided this category into two groups separated at the mid-point of GNI, with four categories of HIC, UMIC-1, UMIC-2 and (LMIC/LICs), using GNI.

  • Δ, mean difference; BP, blood pressure; GNI, gross national income; HIC, high-income countries; ICH, intracerebral haemorrhage; LMIC/LIC, lower middle and lower-income countries; UMIC-1, upper middle-income countries-1; UMIC-2, upper middle-income countries-2 .