PREVALENCE OF HYPERTENSION AND DISTRIBUTION OF BODY MASS INDEX LEVELS AMONG OLDER ADULTS WITH TYPE 2 DIABETES MELLITUS IN VIETNAM: A MULTICENTRE STUDY

Abstract

Objective: The coexistence of hypertension and diabetes can increase the risk of cardiovascular events. However, in Vietnam, little information is known about the clinical characteristics of older adults with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and the prevalence of hypertension in these patients. This study aims to investigate the prevalence of hypertension and the distribution of body mass index (BMI) among older adults with T2DM in Vietnam. Design and method: This cross-sectional study was conducted among outpatients aged 60 years or over at five geriatric clinics from January 2019 to July 2020. The patients were diagnosed with T2DM and hypertension based on the recent clinical guidelines of the European Society of Cardiology. The BMI was stratified according to the guidelines set by the World Health Organization for the Asia-Pacific region. Results: The 1,296 patients with T2DM enrolled in this study had a mean age of 69.9 ± 7.3 years, an age range of 60–94 years, and a male predominance of 54.4%. The prevalence of hypertension was 82.5% (n = 1069). For the BMI, 4.5% (n = 58) were underweight, 39.4% (n = 510) were of normal weight, 24.2% (n = 314) were overweight, and 31.9% (n = 414) were obese. Obesity was more prevalent in men than in women (35.5% vs. 27.7%), and women presented a higher rate of having normal weight than men (45.0% vs. 34.6%). There was no statistically significant difference in the distribution of BMI between the hypertensive and non-hypertensive groups (Figure 1). Conclusions: The prevalence of hypertension among older adults with T2DM was high among the Vietnamese study participants (82.5%). The distribution of BMI levels was not different between the hypertensive and non-hypertensive groups but was significantly different between the males and females.