The relationships between anthropometric indices and blood pressures among middle aged and aged hypertension population in rural areas

Objective To investigate the correlation between anthropometric indices and blood pressure levels in middle aged and aged hypertensive residents in rural areas.Methods A total of 9 991 aged 45-75 years participants with essential hypertension were recruited through a cross-sectional survey during 2008 and 2009 from rural areas of Lianyungang City.Blood pressure,body mass index(BMI),waist circumference(WC),waist-hip ratio(WHR),waist-height ratio(WHtR) and conicity index(CI) were measured.Results Except for the CI of female,there was a tendency of increased diastolic blood pressure with high levels of obesity indicators(P0.001).It showed that BMI,WHtR and WHR were significantly related with systolic blood pressure in men and BMI was the most significant index(β=1.011,R2=0.052,P=0.002) by multiple linear regression analysis adjusted for age,fasting plasma glucose,blood fat,smoking and alcohol consumption and so on.BMI,WHtR and WC were the influencing factors of systolic blood pressure in women by using multiple linear regression,of which BMI was the most significant indexing(β=0.870,R2=0.040,P0.001).All obesity indices were significant for diastolic blood pressure for both genders,of which BMI was the strongest(β=2.001,R2=0.147,P0.001).Conclusions All obesity indices are related to blood pressure levels in varying degrees among middle aged and aged patients with primary hypertension in the rural areas,while BMI is most closely related with blood pressure levels in hypertension population.