Patients’ socio-demographic and clinical characteristics are summarized in Table 1. Almost half of the patients were female (53.1%). The patients’ mean age was 59.5 years (standard deviation = 11.4 years). A significantly higher proportion of GRH patients than HC patients had ever attended school (87.7% vs 77.7%, p = 0.035). Co-morbidity was significantly more common in GRH patients compared with HC patients (45.4% vs 25.4%, p < 0.001). The majority (94.2%) of patients had been diagnosed with HTN within the 5 years preceding the study. Only 23% of all patients had controlled HTN. The proportion of patients with uncontrolled HTN did not differ by type of health facility (76.2% among GRH patients vs 77.7% among HC patients, p = 0.771).Table 1Patients’ socio demographic and clinical characteristics, by health facilityVariablesGRH patientsHC patientsTotal p-value(%) n = 130(%) n = 130(%) n = 260Gender Male46.946.946.90.999 Female53.153.153.1Attended school Yes87.777.782.70.035 No12.322.317.3Has a source of income Yes60.866.263.50.371 No39.233.836.5Marital status Married/cohabiting72.367.770.00.421 Single/separated/divorced /widowed27.732.330.0Co-morbidity Yes45.425.435.4<0.001 No54.674.664.6HTN duration < 594.693.894.20.798 ≥ 55.46.25.8HTN control Yes23.822.323.10.771 No76.277.776.9Mean age ± SD58.0 ± 11.661.05 ± 11.059.5 ± 11.4[95% CI][55.9;60.1][59.1;62.9][58.1;60.9] CI confidence interval, GRH General Referral Hospital, HC Health Center, SD standard deviation