Background: Evidence from high‐income countries indicates that PLHIV experience a higher hypertension prevalence than HIV‐negative individuals. However, it is unclear whether this applies in sub‐Saharan Africa, where behaviour and healthcare access differ. It is also unclear whether reported differences in hypertension prevalence result from socio‐demographic differences between PLHIV and HIV‐negative individuals or from HIV infection and treatment. We analysed data from Manicaland, Zimbabwe, to test the hypothesis that PLHIV had a higher hypertension prevalence than HIV‐negative individuals and assess whether controlling for socio‐demographic factors affected this relationship.

Materials and methods: A cross‐sectional study, including interviews and HIV testing, was performed at two urban sites, a town and a roadside trading area (07/2018 to 03/2019). All young women (15 to 24 years) and men (15 to 29 years), and a random sample of 2/3 of older adults were eligible. Individuals were considered hypertensive if they reported ever being diagnosed with hypertension by a doctor/nurse. Logistic regression was used to estimate odds ratios (ORs) for prevalent hypertension, controlling for socio‐demographic confounders. Weights were used in all analyses to compensate for unequal selection probabilities.

Results: Among 3404 participants (2169 men; 1235 women), the weighted HIV prevalence was 10.8% (95% CI 9.7 to 11.9%). There were more women among PLHIV (PLHIV: 62.5%, 57.2 to 67.8%; HIV‐negative: 53.2%, 52.2% to 54.2%) and PLHIV were older (>45 years: PLHIV: 40%, 31.8% to 48.2%; HIV‐negative: 25.3%, 23.9% to 26.6%). Hypertension prevalence was higher among PLHIV (20.6%, 16.3% to 25.0%) than HIV‐negative individuals (16.4%, 15.1% to 17.6%; OR 1.33, 1.01 to 1.76, p = 0.048). However, hypertension prevalence was higher in older individuals and women, so after adjusting for age and gender the difference in hypertension between PLHIV and HIV‐negative individuals was non‐significant (OR 0.94, 0.69 to 1.29, p = 0.709). Introducing other confounders (marital status, employment, wealth, site) did not alter this (OR 0.93, 0.65 to 1.32, p = 0.674).

Conclusions: Hypertension prevalence was higher among PLHIV than HIV‐negative individuals, mirroring high‐income countries and suggesting that integration care for HIV and hypertension may be needed. The prevalence difference appears to arise from demographic patterns, rather than HIV infection directly, suggesting standard interventions, such as counselling on alcohol consumption, would be effective. However, this study relied on self‐reported hypertension diagnosis; future studies should measure participant blood pressure to confirm these findings.