Synergistic Correlation between Dietary Patterns, Lifestyle and Hypertension among Medical School Population

Abstract

Hypertension (High blood pressure) is responsible for 7.6 million deaths per annum worldwide (13.5% of the total), more than any other risk factors. Around 54% of stroke and 47% of coronary heart disease are attributable to high BP. The present study was conducted to find out how dietary patterns and lifestyle can affect or cause hypertension and its prevalence among the population on medical school campus. The cross‐sectional study involved a survey of 90 respondents aged 16 to 57 years using the random sampling technique. The results were based majorly on two factors i.e. diet and lifestyle. Considering the analysis on these factors, only 4.5% participants had high cholesterol intake, whereas 16.6% participants take heavy amounts of sugars,3.3% participants had high caffeine intake and 32% of population had high salt intake. Prevalence of smoking was 11.1% and heavy alcohol consumption was 4.07%. Contradictory to the expected results, only 6.7% population was found to be diagnosed by hypertension while 40–45% of people among the selected population were at risk of developing hypertension. 30.7% population did not have any exercise habits which is a risk factor leading to hypertension.Support or Funding InformationCommunity Health and Research of Spartan (CHARCOS), Spartan Health Science University School of Medicine, St. Lucia, West Indies