Analysis of Atherogenic and Anthropometric Profiles of Normotensive and Hypertensive Ghanaians in the Kumasi Metropolis

Ghana is undergoing a rapid epidemiological transition from solely communicable to a double burden of infectious and chronic disease such as hypertension.
Aims: We aimed to compare the association between different lifestyle practices, adiposity indices, atherogenic dyslipidaemic parameters and hypertension as well as the prognostic implications for the levels of these parameters on target cardiac organ damage among hypertensives. We also determined the optimal threshold points and the discriminative power of these parameters on this urban Ghanaian hypertensive population.
Study Design: A hospital-based case–control study was conducted.
Methodology: The study purposively recruited 241 Ghanaian indigenes in the Kumasi metropolis, with 180 hypertensives as cases and 61 normotensives as controls. In addition to socio-demographic data captured, all participants underwent standard haemodynamic, anthropometric, atherogenic lipid and cardiac organ damage assessment.
Results: In general, the case group presented with a significantly poorer atherogenic lipid profile compared to their counterparts in the control group. Participants presenting with significantly higher multiple atherogenic scores were found to cluster at the upper quartiles of systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure and pulse rate. Population-specific threshold for waist circumference of >75 cm for females and >80 cm for male were the best adiposity indices for discriminating hypertension. Increasing atherogenic dyslipidaemia was more prevalent with the presence of cardiac target organ damage.
Conclusion: In this urban population, higher altered lipid scores and abdominal obesity aggravated by lifestyle choices including alcohol consumption, smoking and physical inactivity may constitute significant risk for cardiovascular complications among hypertensives.