Genetic epidemiological study of blood pressure in sedentary rural agriculture population of West Bengal, India

To study the genetic epidmiology of blood pressure (BP), data on 78 families were collected from a sedentary agriculture population of eastern India. The general levels of both systolic (SBP) and diastolic (DBP) blood pressures are found to be low (mean SBP = 106.41 mm Hg; means DBP = 63.94 mm Hg). Trends of blood pressures with age are similar to those reported earlier (e.g., in the Framingham study). Environmental variables—e.g., occupation and tobacco use—do not have any direct significant efffect on blood pressure variability in this population. Path analysis of familay data shows a highly significant familial aggregation and yields a gentic heritability (maximum) estimate of 0.3 for both SBP and DBP. Sib–sib and mother–child correlation estimates are, respectively, 0.3 and 0.25. Father–child correlation estimates are 0.13 for SBP and near zero for DBP. A pseudopolygenic model yields the best fit to the data on SBP, while for DBP a proper resolution of various models considered could not be obtained.