Patterns of dyslipidemia amongst hypertensive patients in Abuja, North Central Nigeria

Abstract

Introduction: dyslipidemia and hypertension are independent cardiovascular risk factors that are linked by insulin resistance and commonly coexist as components of the metabolic syndrome. The consequences of dyslipidaemic patterns includes high cardiovascular risk profile and sequalae. Data on lipid patterns amongst hypertensive patients in Abuja, a city with affluent pattern of life style and rising cardiovascular risk profile is very scanty or limited to just levels of total plasma cholesterol. This study was aimed at determining the pattern and frequencies of dyslipidaemic forms among hypertensive patients in Abuja.

Methods: this was a retrospective cohort study with the following data collected; socio-demographics, anthropometric measures and certain metabolic parameters from the new and old groups and analyzed using IBM SPSS Statistics, version 23. All decisions were made using the assymp. Two-sided Pearson χ2 probability. Quantitative variables were expressed as means and standard deviations. Qualitative variables were expressed as percentages. A p-value of ≤0.05 was set as significant.

Results: eight fifty eight (858) cases were enrolled for this study, 704 (82.1%) olds and 154 (17.9%) news. There were 251 (29.3%) males and 607 (70.7%) females. The means of the two groups were largely comparable. The commonest dyslipidaemic type was reduced High density lipoprotein, HDL (96.1%), followed by elevated low-density lipoprotein, LDL (78.6%), then, elevated total cholesterol, (62.3%) TCHOL and elevated triglycerides, TG 43.5%.

Conclusion: dyslipidemic forms are very common among hypertensive patients in Abuja, Nigeria, particularly reduced HDL. Some observed associations include; middle age, female gender, middle/upper socio-economic classes, low levels of physical activity, overweight/obesity, dysglycaemia and long-standing hypertension.