A risk score to predict hypertension in primary care settings in rural India

We used the data of 297 participants (15-64 years old) from a cohort study (2003-2010) who were free from hypertension at baseline, to develop a risk score to predict hypertension by primary health care workers in rural India. Age =35 years, current smoking, prehypertension, and central obesity were significantly associated with incident hypertension. The optimal cutoff value of =3 had a sensitivity of 78.6 , specificity of 65.2 , positive predictive value of 41.1 , and negative predictive value of 90.8 . The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of the risk score was 0.802 (95 confidence interval = 0.748-0.856). This simple and easy to administer risk score could be used to predict hypertension in primary care settings in rural India.