Prevalence of hypertension, dyslipidemia, and dyslipidemic hypertension.

It has been proposed that dyslipidemic hypertension is part of a distinct metabolic syndrome related to insulin resistance. This paper describes the prevalence and cross-sectional relations of dyslipidemic hypertension in a population-based sample of men and women. In two southeastern New England communities, 11,199 randomly selected participants were evaluated as part of a cross-sectional surveillance program of coronary heart disease risk factors between 1981 and 1990. The frequency of dyslipidemia was 38% and of hypertension was 26.5%; the conjoint frequency (dyslipidemic hypertension) was 15.0%, which is 1.49 times the expected value if the two diseases were independent P < .05). Using a discrete multivariate model, dyslipidemia and hypertension were associated with sex, obesity, and diabetes mellitus. The excess association of dyslipidemic hypertension, compared with individual effects of dyslipidemia and hypertension, was not related to these factors. This study suggests that dyslipidemic hypertension is common but may not be a unique entity associated with a distinct metabolic syndrome.