Studies have assessed the prevalence and associated risk profiles of prehypertension, and
the increased CVD risk in prehypertensive subjects has been
confirmed in some reports [3–10]. However, few studies have
assessed the epidemiology of prehypertension among rural
adults [11,12]. In addition, racial and ethnic differences are
known to influence the prevalence and risks of prehypertension
[13–15]. In this study, we intended to assess the
prevalence of prehypertension and associated risk profiles in
a rural Taiwanese adult population.