Red meat consumption and its association with hyperlipidemia and hypertension among adult Maasai pastoralists of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Tanzania

Objectives: To determine the magnitude of hyperlipidemia and hypertension and their association with red meat consumption among adult Maasai pastoralists of Ngorongoro Conservation Area in Tanzania. Methods: We conducted an analytical cross-sectional study for one month in October 2018. A multistage random sampling was used to select 914 participants from 7 villages in 3 wards within Ngorongoro Conservation Area. Data was summarized using frequencies and percentage for categorical while mean with SD were used for continuous. Chi-square statistics was applied to check for differences between sets of covariates and outcomes. The crude PR with 95% CI for factors associated with hypertension and hyperlipidemia was estimated using Ordinal and Bayesian logistic regression models, respectively. Results: The prevalence of hyperlipidemia was 23.7%, being higher among male than female participants (29.0% vs. 20.1%, p=0.002).The prevalence of hypertensive was higher compared with elevated BP (34.0% vs. 12.8%). Both were higher among males than females (hypertensive [39.6% vs. 30.1%]; elevated BP [15.3% vs. 11.0%], p<0.001). Odds for hypertension and hyperlipidemia were higher across levels of red meat consumption where further analysis in ongoing to confirm the results Conclusion: The prevalence of hyperlipidemia and hypertension were high among this sub-population and both had positive association with red meat consumption.