Factors associated with hypertension and its management among older rural Australians.

OBJECTIVES: Hypertension is a leading risk factor for death and disability. We aimed to estimate the prevalence of hypertension in an older rural Australian cohort and identify predictors of hypertension management. DESIGN: Analysis of cross-sectional data collected from participants in a prospective cohort study. SETTING: The Victorian rural towns of Morwell and Sale in 2018-2019. PARTICIPANTS: A weighted random sample of 1119 eligible participants from Morwell or Sale, aged ≥55-90 years for men and ≥60-90 years for women, was drawn from the Hazelwood Health Study's Adult Survey cohort. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Blood pressure, body mass index, left ventricular hypertrophy by electrocardiogram, estimated glomerular filtration rate and glycosylated haemoglobin (HbA1c ) were measured. Participants with hypertension were categorised as managed, undermanaged or unmanaged. RESULTS: Testing undertaken of 498 participants estimated the weighted prevalence of hypertension (defined as blood pressure ≥ 140/90 mm Hg, a self-reported doctor diagnosis of hypertension or taking antihypertensive medication) to be 79.9% (95% confidence interval: 75.7-83.4). Of those, 54.5% (49.4-60.0) had managed hypertension (<140/90 mm Hg), 37.1% (32.3-42.1) undermanaged hypertension and 8.4% (5.9-11.9) a new finding of hypertension (unmanaged hypertension). Current employment (relative risk 1.47, 95% confidence interval: 1.06-2.02) and single marital status (relative risk 1.45, 1.4-1.84) were associated with under- or unmanaged hypertension. Compared with no hypertension, the hypertensive groups were more likely to demonstrate markers of end-organ damage such as left ventricular hypertrophy and impaired renal function. CONCLUSION: Hypertension is a highly prevalent condition among older rural Australians which is suboptimally identified and managed.

Habenula GPR139 is associated with fear learning in the zebrafish.

G-protein coupled receptor 139 (GPR139) is an evolutionarily conserved orphan receptor, predominantly expressing in the habenula of vertebrate species. The habenula has recently been implicated in aversive response and its associated learning. Here, we tested the hypothesis that GPR139 signalling in the habenula may play a role in fear learning in the zebrafish. We examined the effect of intraperitoneal injections of a human GPR139-selective agonist (JNJ-63533054) on alarm substance-induced fear learning using conditioned place avoidance paradigm, where an aversive stimulus is paired with one compartment, while its absence is associated with the other compartment of the apparatus. The results indicate that fish treated with 1 µg/g body weight of GPR139 agonist displayed no difference in locomotor activity and alarm substance-induced fear response. However, avoidance to fear-conditioned compartment was diminished, which suggests that the agonist blocks the consolidation of contextual fear memory. On the other hand, fish treated with 0.1 µg/g body weight of GPR139 agonist spent a significantly longer time in the unconditioned neutral compartment as compared to the conditioned (punished and unpunished) compartments. These results suggest that activation of GPR139 signalling in the habenula may be involved in fear learning and the decision-making process in the zebrafish.