Association between blood Pressure, waist circumference, cholesterolaemia and triglyceridaemia in a population of Cameroonian adults

Objective: Blood pressure (BP) is one of the main cardiovascular risk indicators, but studies on its relationship with waist circumference, triglycerides and cholesterol are rare in low and middle income countries and even non-existent in some areas like the north of Cameroon. The aim of our study was to determine the associations between blood pressure parameters and age, waist circumference, triglycerides and total cholesterol in a north Cameroonian adult population.Method: A cross sectional community-based study was carried out in Ngaoundere (Adamawa region, Cameroon) from June to August 2015. Participants aged 20 years and above were recruited using a multistage sampling technique. Sociodemographic, clinical and biological data were collected and analysed using Microsoft Excel 2013® and SPSS version 20.0® softwares.Results: In total 948 participants met our selection criteria. The prevalence of prehypertension (Pre- HTN), Stage 1 hypertension (HTN) and Stage 2 HTN were 37.55%, 26.48% and 18.57% respectively. The prevalence of Stage 2 HTN was found to rise with age, waist circumference, serum triglycerides and cholesterol levels. The mean values ?of systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP), pulse pressure (PP) and mean arterial pressure (MAP) were 131.27 ± 24.07 mmHg, 86.56 ± 14.45 mmHg, 44.71 ± 15.45 mmHg and 101 ± 16.72 mmHg respectively. BP parameters correlated positively and significantly with age, waist circumference, triglycerides and total cholesterol (P<0.001).Conclusion: This study demonstrates a positive correlation of blood pressure parameters with age, abdominal obesity, hypertriglyceridemia, hypercholesterolemia, thus the need for stakeholders to strengthen measures towards cardiovascular risk awareness and cardiovascular diseases (CVD) prevention in the general population.Keywords: Blood pressure, pulse pressure, age, waist circumference, triglycerides, total cholesterol