Abstract
Background:
Hypertension (HTN) is one of the major risk factors for cardiovascular diseases (CVD) that afflicts one-third of the population in United States (US). This study examined the association between multiple modifiable risk factors for HTN in a rural hard-to-reach population.
Methods:
During January 2011 and December 2012, 1629 community-dwelling asymptomatic individuals from central Appalachia participated in screening for subclinical atherosclerosis, during which the participants were asked to report whether a physician or health worker has informed them that they had HTN (yes/no). Additionally, baseline data consisting of two non-modifiable risk factors (sex, age) and 5 modifiable risk factors (obesity, diabetes, hypercholesterolemia, smoking, and sedentary lifestyle) were collected. Descriptive statistics involving prevalence of risk factors and multivariate logistic regression analyses to determine the strength of association between hypertension and the number of risk factors were conducted.
Results:
Of the 1629 study participants, about half (49.8%) had hypertension. Among hypertensive patients, 31.4% were obese and 62.3% having hypercholesterolemia. Overall, having 2 risk factors consisted the largest group of participants with HTN. After adjusting for the non-modifiable risk factors (sex, age), obesity and diabetes increased the odds of having HTN by more than two folds ([OR=2.02, CI=1.57-2.60] and [OR=2.30, CI=1.66-3.18], respectively) and hypercholesterolemia and sedentary lifestyle increased the odds for HTN by more than one fold ([OR=1.26, CI=1.02-1.56) and [OR=1.38, CI=1.12-1.70], respectively). Compared to those without HTN, having 2, 3, and 4 or 5 modifiable risk factors were significantly associated with increased odds of having HTN by about two-folds [OR=1.72, CI=1.21-2.44], two and half folds [OR=2.55, 1.74-3.74], and six folds [OR=5.96, 3.42-10.41], respectively.
Conclusion:
The study suggests that odds of having HTN increases with the number of modifiable risk factors for CVD. Hence, by implementing an integrated CVD program for treating and controlling modifiable risk factors of HTN would decrease the future risk of CVD and help to achieve the
2020 Impact Goal
of the American Health Association.