[Clustering of cardiovascular risk factors and hypertension control status among hypertensive patients in the outpatient setting].

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the status of the clustering of cardiovascular risk factors and hypertension control among hypertensive patients in the outpatient setting in China. METHODS: This multi-center cross-sectional study was carried out from June to December 2009. Study patients were consecutively recruited from 46 hypertension outpatient clinics in 22 provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities of China according to identical inclusion criteria. More than 100 consecutive patients should be recruited in each outpatient clinic, and 5206 hypertensive outpatients were included. The patients were examined by questionnaires, physical examinations, and biochemical analyses. Risk factors were defined according to the 2010 Chinese guidelines for the management of hypertension. RESULTS: In this patient cohort, dyslipidemia was found in 61.5% (3203/5206), obesity in 56.0% (2917/5206), and impaired glucose regulation in 27.8% (1449/5206) patients. The prevalence of smoking was 34.9% (910/2605) in male hypertensive patients, 88.9% (4630/5206) hypertensive patients had at least one of the above-mentioned four risk factors and 17.4% (906/5206) had three or more risk factors. Only 4.1% (211/5206) hypertensive outpatients were classified as low cardiovascular risk patients, 72.5% (3774/5206) hypertensive outpatients were classified as high or very high cardiovascular risk patients. The general blood pressure control rate was 44.3% (2304/5206), which was higher in the age group of ≥ 65 years than in those of 35-44 years [51.3% (818/1596) vs. 29.6% (160/541), P < 0.01], higher in low-risk patients than in high-risk patients [65.4% (138/211)vs. 41.9% (1581/3774), P < 0.01] and higher in patients under regular therapy ( ≥ 9 months per year) than in those of irregular therapy (< 6 months per year) [50.7% (1744/3442)vs. 30.0% (391/1305), P < 0.01]. CONCLUSION: Clustering of cardiovascular risk factors, especially dyslipidemia and obesity, is common, and cardiovascular risk is high while blood pressure control rate is low among hypertensive outpatients in China.