Background:

Hypertension is responsible for a substantial number of deaths due to cardiovascular disease and stroke. A crucial step toward its control is the identification of modifiable predictors of hypertension.

Objectives:

To estimate the relationship between salt intake, serum uric acid and incident hypertension in a primary care setting.

Methods:

Retrospective cohort of the CAMELIA study in which a non-randomized sample of 1098 participants who were ≥ 20 year-old was recruited from a primary care program. Originally, the sample consisted of hypertensive, diabetic and non-diabetic/non-hypertensive subjects. For the analysis, 258 participants with blood pressure (BP) lower than 140/90 mm Hg not using antihypertensive drugs and without diabetes mellitus were included. Five years after the first visit, their medical records were reviewed. Patients were divided into two groups according to BP in the first visit: normal BP group (systolic BP ≤ 120 mm Hg and diastolic BP ≤ 80 mm Hg) and high-normal BP group (systolic BP 121-139 mm Hg and/or diastolic BP 81-89 mm Hg).

Results:

In multivariate analysis, high-normal BP, hyperuricemia and salt intake ≥ 6 g/day predicted incident hypertension. In participants of thenormal BP group, high salt intake conferred the highest risk. In the high-normal BP group, smoking and serum uric acid were found to be the most important ones.

Conclusion:

In a healthy, multiethnic, and normotensive population from an urban primary care program, high-normal BP, hyperuricemia and high salt intake were found to be predictors of incident hypertension.

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