Flood and Hypertension: A Systematic Review

Background: Several studies have been conducted on the effects of floods on the health of the affected community. We aimed to determine the effects of floods as the most common disaster on hypertension as one of the most common non-communicable diseases (NCDs). Material: and Methods: The 4 databases, including Medline, Scopus, Google Scholar, and Science Direct were searched with the search strategy protocol up to the end of 2020. Grey literature database and websites of WHO, UNDRR, and Prevention Web also searched. After removing duplicate articles, abstracts of the relevant titles were reviewed and eligible articles were included for full text review. Finally, the study variables were extracted from selected articles. Results: : The search strategy resulted in 8 final relevant articles from total number of 48980 articles. All final articles noted meaningful effect of flood on hypertension. There were founded positive correlation between anxiety level, property loss, financial loss, physical activity, use of alcoholic beverages, interruption of medication and medical cares with hypertension. Different studies have reported also long-term effects of flooding on blood pressure. Conclusions: : The flood has effect on blood pressure in affected population. According to the importance of hypertension and its burden, screening are recommended in the affected community. Keywords: Hypertension, Disaster, Flood, Blood pressure