Table 3 Blood pressure and lipid levels at baseline and at 4 years.

	Baseline		4 Years
	No met syn	Met syn	No met syn	Met syn
Systolic BP (mm Hg)	137 (15)	139 (16)	131 (16)	134 (16)
Diastolic BP (mm Hg)	82 (8)	83 (8)	78 (9)	79 (8)
Cholesterol (mmol/l)	5.4 (1)	5.4 (1)	–	–
LDL (mmol/l)	3.4 (1)	3.4 (1)	–	–
HDL (mmol/l)	1.3 (0.5)	1.0 (0.3)	–	–
Use of lipid lowering drugs (%)	54	55	70	71
Antihypertensive drugs (n)	1.0 (0.6)	1.2 (0.6)	1.1 (0.7)	1.3 (0.7)

Results are shown as mean (SD) unless stated otherwise.

BP, blood pressure; LDL, low‐density lipoprotein; HDL, high‐density lipoprotein.