Hypertension in the metabolic syndrome among Caribbean non diabetic subjects

OBJECTIVE: To study the metabolic syndrome (MS) components in Caribbean non diabetic individuals and to determine the magnitude of hypertension (HT) in those with and without MS. RESEARCH METHODS: We conducted a cross-sectional study, of 966 consecutive subjects aged 18-74 years. The MS was identified according to the NCEP/ATpiiI definition. Age, gender, body mass index and the MS components (blood pressure, waist circumference, fasting blood glucose, triglycerides, HDL cholesterol) were taken into account. The Principal component analysis (PCA) was used to understand correlations between these continuous variables within the data base, and to identify principal factors (combinations of variables) and the magnitude of HT in these combinations. RESULTS: In the overall study population, mean age was 38 years and there were 60.1% of women. HT was more frequently found in men than in women (52.2% vs. 41.3%; p=0.001). Prevalence of MS was 11.3%. With PCA, in the complete sample of men, the first factor, explained 31.5% of the total variance in the original variables and was dominated by blood pressure, clustered with age and fasting blood glucose (FBG). In the women's sample, the first factor (31.1% of the variance) was dominated by obesity combined with FBG and lipids. In subjects with the metabolic syndrome the principal factors were dominated by blood pressure in both genders with higher loadings in men than in women. CONCLUSION: In this non diabetic population study the prevailing obese women profile clustering with fasting glucose and lipid disturbances might explain the higher prevalence of type 2 diabetes among women, observed in this Caribbean region.