Relative Weight, Smoking and Contraceptive Pills: Interrelations to Blood Pressure in Students

Abstract

Abstract Hypertension is one of the most important risk factors of cardiovascular diseases. Kannel et al1 have shown in a prospective study that relative body weight, weight change under observation, and skinfold thickness were distinctly related to existing blood pressure levels and to the subsequent rate of development of hypertension. Recent evidence has suggested that the patient with essential hypertension may be identified early in life, even before gross hypertension occurs. Stamler et al2 found in a prospective study of middle-aged males that the baseline blood pressure was the measurement most powerfully related to follow-up blood pressure. The risk of developing hypertension in from one to four years for males originally normotensive was best correlated with baseline blood pressure. Multivariate analyses indicated that relative weight and cigarette smoking also added low-order independent contributors to blood pressure in predicting the risk of development of hypertension. The use of variables made it possible to identify that portion of the population with a very high incidence of elevated blood pressure four to five years later. A relation between oral contraceptives and hypertension has been suggested.3 Some characteristics related to blood pressure measured at a health examination of first- and third-year university students are reported here.