Objectives and methods: The aim of this study was to determine the blood pressure and LDL-cholesterol (LDL-c) control rates of hypertensive patients with diabetes mellitus attended in primary care setting in Spain, and to compare the data with those of the hypertensive population without diabetes. For this purpose, we analyzed the subset of diabetic patients of those included in the PRESCOT study (a cross-sectional survey of hypertensive subjects > 18 years attended in primary care). 12,954 patients (49.9% females; 62.1 +/- 10.7 years) were included in the PRESCOT study. Good controls were considered blood pressure < 130/80 mmHg (according to European Society of Hypertension-European Society of Cardiology [ESH-ESC] guidelines) and LDL-c < 100 mg/dl (National Cholesterol Education Program-Adult Treatment Panel III [NCEP-ATP III]).
Results: Overall, 3868 (29.9%) of PRESCOT patients were diabetics (mean age 64.2 +/- 9.8 years; 47.5% males). Almost all the diabetic patients (98.5%) were taking some drug besides the antidiabetic treatment and 84.9% were taking at least 2 drugs. Although diabetic patients were treated with more antihypertensive medication than those without diabetes (48.75% vs 40.85% were on > 2 drugs, p < 0.001), blood pressure control was much lower in diabetics (6.3% vs 32.7%, p < 0.0001). In the same way, LDL-c control was also lower in these patients (12.0% vs 31.9%, p < 0.0001). Only 1.0% of diabetic hypertensives were well controlled for both risk factors (vs 11.9% of non-diabetics, p < 0.0001). Predictors of bad blood pressure control were sedentarism and presence of associated clinical conditions, and for lipid control the younger age, female gender, overweight, alcoholism and non-use of lipid-lowering agents.
Conclusions: The presence of diabetes in hypertensive population attended in Spanish primary health care is frequent. One out of every three hypertensives who attend the outpatient clinic daily is diabetic. Even though more drugs are prescribed in these patients, blood pressure and LDL-c control rates are significantly lower than in patients without diabetes. In the daily practice of primary care setting, almost no diabetic hypertensive subject is well controlled for blood pressure and LDL-c.