Table 1:

Descriptive statistics of the MLSFH-MAC sample, 2013-2017

	Mean (1)	Std. dev. (2)	10^th (3)	90^th (4)

Blood pressure, referral letters, health behaviors ami literacy

Mean systolic BP (2017)	135.1	25.21	108	170.7
Mean systolic BP (2013)	134.26	25.31	106.3	170
Mean diastolic BP (2017)	83.67	12.69	69	100
Mean diastolic BP (2013)	85.94	12.49	71.3	102
Hypertensive 2017^a	.41	.49	0	1
Hypertensive in 2013^a	.41	.49	0	1
Received a referral letter in 2013	.19	.4	0	1
Being diagnosed in 2017	.16	.37	0	1
Taking medication in 2017	.09	.29	0	0
Know what high BP is (2017)	.82	.39	0	1
Know symptoms of high BP (2017)	.63	.48	0	1
Know will have to take treatment forever (2017)	.78	.41	0	1
Add extra salt to plate (2017)	.54	.5	0	1
Consume at least 1 sweet drink per day (2017)	.24	.43	0	1
Total number of teaspoons of sugar used in tea/coffee per day (2017)	2.71	1.91	0	5
Change in standardized SF12 physical score	0	1.05	−1.4	1.3
Change in standardized SF12 mental score	0	1.24	−1.7	1.6

Control variables

Female	.59	.49	0	1
Age	62.38	10.69	50	78
Central region	.31	.46	0	1
South region	.34	.47	0	1
North region	.35	.48	0	1

Nb of observations in benchmark sample	1075

Note: The sample is derived from the MLSFH-MAC 2013 and 2017 waves. Our analysis is based on a sample of 1075 individuals for which we have non-missing systolic and diastolic blood pressure measurements in 2013 and who were interviewed in 2017. The descriptive statistics of some of the variable in Table 1 are derived from a smaller sample because of missing values. Note also that we restricted our analysis to individuals who were 40 years or older in 2017.

^a:

We define someone as hypertensive if the mean systolic or diastolic blood pressure measurements was greater or equal to 140 and 90, respectively. 10^th and 90^th represent the 10^th and 90^th percentiles of the distributions, respectively.