Hypertension and clustering of cardiovascular risk factors in a community in Southeast Brazil - The Bambuí Health and Ageing Study

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE - A population-based prospective study was analysed to a) determine the prevalence of hypertension; b) investigate the clustering of other cardiovascular risk factors and c) verify whether older differed from younger adults in the pattern of clustering. METHODS - The data comprised a representative sample of the population of Bambuí, Brazil. Multiple logistic regression was used to investigate the independent association between hypertension and selected factors. RESULTS - A total of 820 younger adults (82.5 percent) and 1494 older adults (85.9 percent) participated in this study. The overall prevalence of hypertension was 24.8 percent (SE=1.4 percent), being higher in women (26.9+/-1.5 percent) than in men (22.0+/- 1.7 percent) (p=0.033). Hypertension was positively and significantly associated with physical inactivity, overweight, hypercholesterolemia hyperglycemia and hypertriglyceridemia. The coexistence of hypertension with 4 or more of these risk factors occurred 6 times more than expected by chance, after adjusting for age and sex (OR=6.3; 95 percentCI 3.4-11.9). The pattern of risk factor clustering in hypertensive individuals differed with age. CONCLUSION - Our results reinforce the need to increase detection and treatment of hypertension and to approach patients' global risk profiles