Abstract P559: Evaluating Geographic Variation in Hypertension in Urban Haiti: Findings From the Haiti Cardiovascular Disease Cohort Study

Introduction: Hypertension (HTN) is the leading cardiovascular risk factor in low-income countries including Haiti. Understanding blood pressure (BP) variation at the individual, neighborhood and population levels may help target interventions for multi-level risk reduction. This study aims to identify systolic BP (SBP) and diastolic BP (DBP) variation by neighborhood census blocks in Port-au-Prince to determine if this level should be targeted for future HTN interventions. Methods: Using data from the Haiti Cardiovascular Disease Cohort (March 2019-August 2021), a population-based cohort of Haitians ≥ 18 years, HTN was defined as SBP ≥140 mmHg or DBP ≥80 mmHg. Census blocks were defined as geographic areas of approximately 100-200 residential buildings per the Haitian Institute of Statistics. The geographic distribution of SBP and DBP was mapped based on household location. The proportion of SBP and DBP variation in block membership was calculated using intra-class correlations (ICC) from linear mixed models. Results: Among 2,972 participants, median (IQR) age was 40 (28-55) years and 57.6% were female. HTN prevalence was 33.0% and median (IQR) SBP and DBP were 120 (108-140) mmHg and 73.0 (64.0-85.0) mmHg, respectively. No distinct geographic pattern was present for SBP or DBP across blocks (Figure 1). The variation of SBP was 0.7% and DBP was 1.0% across census block membership. Conclusion: HTN prevalence in urban Port-au-Prince is high without a significant variation in SBP and DBP by census block. This may be due to outdated census data, crossover of individuals living informally across households, and/or the need for different household-level neighborhood geographic constructs such as shared household units. Moreover, these data suggest that interventions may need to target the population level, which span neighborhoods, given the uniformity of hypertension across these communities in Port-au-Prince.