Women empowerment and hypertension in Nepal: a nationally representative survey analysis

Abstract

This study investigates the roles of women empowerment on the prevalence, awareness, and treatment of hypertension among ever-married Nepalese women aged 15–49 years using 2016 Nepal Demographic and Health Survey data. We assessed women empowerment using the Survey-based Women emPowERment (SWPER) index in the domains of ‘social independence’, ‘decision-making’, and ‘attitudes towards violence’. We assessed associations of domains of women empowerment with hypertension using multiple logistic regression models. Among 4919 women, 568 (12%) had hypertension, 35% were aware of their condition, and 14% were taking anti-hypertensive medication. Majority (72%) of women had high empowerment in ‘‘attitude to violence’ domain, 14%—in ‘decision-making’ domain, and 25%—in the ‘social independence’ domain; the latter group was also less likely to suffer from hypertension (aOR = 0.68, 95% CI 0.49–0.94). Our findings suggest the need to integrate empowerment initiatives into strategies to prevent hypertension among women in Nepal and similar low- and middle-income settings.