Abstract P164: Risk Factors Of Undiagnosed Diabetes And Hypertension In Arkansas

Abstract

Introduction: Hypertension and diabetes are issues in the US especially in the south. In Arkansas, an estimated 797,000 adults have prediabetes and are at risk for diabetes. We aimed to assess cardiometabolic risk factors and impact of nutrition-related indicators in self-identified diabetes and hypertension patients and those at risk. Method: Data were analyzed from the 2008 Arkansas Cardiovascular Health Examination Survey (n=1,383), which used probability sampling to obtain a representative sample of Arkansas residents. A self-report survey was administered on health history, socioeconomic status (SES), lifestyle, and diet. Blood biomarkers were measured and compared for those who self-reported diabetes or hypertension with those who were at risk. Results: We used t-tests for continuous variables and chi-square test for categorical variables with statistical significance at p<0.05. We hypothesized that participants with undiagnosed diabetes or hypertension had less access to care (SES as a surrogate) and worse health behavior than the diagnosed groups. Significant differences in SES, behaviors, nutrients, and biomarkers were observed between healthy vs. both diagnosed and undiagnosed groups. Surprisingly, we found that undiagnosed groups had higher average food security than the diagnosed groups. Also, some of the health behaviors including alcohol consumption were 5-6 fold higher among the undiagnosed and healthy groups as compared to currently diagnosed diabetes group. Moderate physical activity was about 2 fold higher among the healthy (5.5 hours/week) as compared to undiagnosed hypertension group (3 hours/week). In addition, the currently diagnosed groups seem to have some improved dietary habits based on higher levels of vegetable and fruit consumption and lower blood cholesterol. We have also found that both the healthy and undiagnosed diabetes groups had above normal or high triglyceride levels. Conclusion: Undiagnosed diabetes and hypertension do not have serious symptoms, but are dangerous health conditions. From our findings, targeted education should be implemented among all people, especially on access to food, vegetable and fruit consumption, alcohol use, physical activity, cholesterol and triglyceride levels.