The objectives of this study were to identify and compare the prevalence of metabolic syndrome among hypertensive individuals and people with normal blood pressure measurements. The metabolic syndrome definition used in this study is that of the National Cholesterol Education Program/Adult Treatment Panel (NCEP-ATP III). The data referring to the clinical and biochemical profiles were processed using the SPSS software to obtain absolute frequencies and percentages. The Student's t-test was used to compare the means, with values of p<0.05 considered statistically significant. The sample was comprised of 93 participants with normal blood pressure levels and 168 participants with hypertension. It was found that 60.7% of the individuals with hypertension had metabolic syndrome, versus 18.3% of those with normal blood pressure levels. Individuals with hypertension showed a significant difference in blood pressure levels (p<0.001), abdominal circumference (p<0.001), blood glucose (p<0.05) and plasma triglycerides (p<0.05). The frequency of cardiometabolic risks associated with metabolic syndrome is greater when hypertension is present.
Metabolic syndrome; Hypertension; Risk factors; Public health nursing
