Publication:

Epidemiology of prediabetes and prehypertension-progression, regression and interaction

Background The major portion of the non-communicable diseases is formed by cardiovascular diseases. The two major modifiable risk factors are hypertension and diabetes. The probable CVD risk with pre-hypertension and pre-diabetes, to some extent, is dependent on whether pre-HTN leads to hypertension and pre-DM leads to diabetes. Our aim was to study: the progression of prehypertension and prediabetes to overt hypertension and diabetes or to normal status, and the association of pre-obesity and obesity with prehypertension and prediabetes.

Methods A total of 1200 patients equally distributed among three groups were studied for progression or regression. Group A included 400 patients of pre-hypertension, and group B included 400 patients of pre-diabetes and group C included 400 patients of pre-diabetes and pre-hypertension.

Results Among the 400 studied patients with prediabetes 31 (7.8%) progressed to diabetes and only 9 (2.3%) progressed to hypertension over a period of two years. Patients with both prehypertension and prediabetes had a higher risk of progression to hypertension and diabetes (3% to hypertension and 15.5% to diabetes). Males were more prone to develop both pre-hypertension and pre-diabetes mellitus and progression. Obesity increased the risk of progression to hypertension and diabetes significantly.

Conclusions The screening of people for pre-diabetes mellitus and pre-hypertension should be carried out at mass levels so as to diagnose them at an early stage and hence, their progression can be either halted or modified.