The objective of this study is to know how hypertensive people perceive their health condition and what kinds of subjective symptoms they complain of, based on a comparative study with normotensives. The Todai Health Index (THI) questionnarie was applied to 1, 569 residents in a rural area in city M. Ninety hypertensives which were consisted of 38 males and 52 females were sampled from the subjects. As a matched group, 90 normotensives were sampled from the same population matched with age and sex. The average age of hypertensive males was 56.8 and that of the females was 59.9 years old. Male hypertensives did not complain of their subjective symptoms more than the matched normotensives, and the lifestyle of the former group was more regular than those of the latter. On the other hand, female hypertensives complained more than the matched normotensives. They were likely to have hot flashes, feel their head "heavy" or "dull", fese slightly faint, and be bothered by bleeding gums.
