The prevalence of concomitant hypertension and hypercholesterolaemia in the general population.

OBJECTIVE: To study the joint prevalence of elevated blood pressure and raised total cholesterol in adult individuals and to estimate the multifactorial cardiovascular risk associated with this clustering.
MATERIAL AND METHODS: Data were obtained through pooling of databases from large cross-sectional representative population-based studies carried out in Belgium. Prevalences of concurrent hypertension (systolic/diastolic blood pressure > or =140/90 mm Hg and/or under antihypertensive treatment) and hypercholesterolaemia (total cholesterol > or =190 mg/dl and/or using lipid-lowering drugs) were determined as well as the proportion of high risk individuals (according to SCORE) in this particular subgroup.
RESULTS: In total, 16,300 men and 5075 women aged 35-74 years were included. The prevalences of hypertension and hypercholesterolaemia were, respectively, 41% and 84% in men and 31% and 82% in women. Both risk factors occurred simultaneously in 38% of men and 32% of women. In multivariate analysis, risk factor clustering was increasing with age and body mass index but appeared less prominent among smokers. Only 20% of all subjects having both risk factors were reaching a high multifactorial risk level of 5%.
CONCLUSIONS: The high prevalence of co-existing hypertension and hypercholesterolaemia further accentuates the need for adequate risk factor management in this substantial subgroup of our population especially in younger subjects.