[Estimation of the number of patients treated for hypertension, diabetes or hyperlipidemia in France: FLAHS study 2002].

The study used a cross-sectional survey of the general population living in metropolitan France in April 2002. A national sample of 5,000 adults, representative of the French population, 15 years of age or older, received at their home a questionnaire mailed by SOFRES medical. The sample was designed to provide estimates of the prevalence of hypertension in the general population and in persons older than 60 years of age, a subgroup on which prevalence of treated cardiovascular risk factors is unknown in France. The questionnaire included questions related to diagnosis of hypertension, awareness of their usual BP, current SBP/DBP values, prescribed medicine for hypertension dyslipidemia and diabetes. In FLAHS 2002, a number of 3,499 (70%) questionnaires were suitable for analysis. Estimates of prevalence were standardized by the direct method to the age distribution of the French population given by the 1999 national French census (INSEE 2000). Analysis on 2,363 subjects older than 35 years and indicates that 35% are currently treated for one or more risk factor. Overall, 8,036,000 received antihypertensive medication, 1,877,000 were treated for diabetes and 6,074,000 for dyslipidemia. Prevalence of treated hypertension increased with age from from 4.2% (35-44 years) to 51.8% (> 75 years) and 70% of treated hypertensives were older than 60 years. Subjects treated for two risk factors were 3,201,000 and those treated for three risk factors were 640,000. The FLAHS 2002 represents the best available data to estimate the prevalence of treated patients for a cardiovascular risk factor in the general French population. Thirty-five percent of the population 35 years of age or older representing around 11 millions persons were taking medications for the treatment of hypertension, diabetes or dyslipidemia in France.