Adiposity measures and age explained an increasing amount of variation in systolic blood pressure from traditional to urbanized groups (2.4% to 24.8% in males, 11.4% to 43.6% in females).
Cross-Sectional (n=1,119)
The effect of adiposity on blood pressures, systolic (SBP), and diastolic (DBP), was examined in a sample of 1119 individuals (456 males, 663 females), 18–75 years, from socioeconomically diverse populations from Southern Andhra Pradesh, India. The populations were graded into four socioeconomic groups, group I–seminomadic Yerukalas, group II–hard working scheduled caste Mala and the Muslims, group III–land owning agricultural castes Reddy and Balija, and group IV–sedentary urban dwelling castes such as Brahmins, Vyshyas, and Marwadis. There was a trend of increase in mean blood pressures and the frequency of hypertensives (SBP ≥160 and/or DBP ≥95) with increasing age in all groups, and the increase was more distinct from group I to group IV. Mean values of body mass index (BMI: weight/height2) and body fat (SF4: sum of biceps, triceps, subscapular, and suprailiac skinfolds) also showed an increasing trend from group I to group IV. A somewhat opposite trend was evident in two indices of fat distribution, centripetal fat ratio (CFR: ratio of subscapular to the sum of subscapular and triceps skin fold thicknesses) and the relative fat pattern index (RFPI: ratio of subscapular skinfold thickness to the sum of subscapular and suprailiac skinfold thicknesses). Step-wise regression analysis indicated that while one or the other adiposity measures along with one of the age terms significantly contributed to SBP variation among males in the affluent groups III and IV, neither any adiposity measure nor age explain the variation in group I, and only body fat, not age, in group II. A qualitatively similar pattern was observed in females, except that BMI explained a significant amount of variation in SBP in group I, and only age and not any of the adiposity measures, in group IV. Besides age, BMI and fat pattern indices accounted for a significant amount of variation in DBP, while RFPI explained a significant amount of variation in group IV. The amount of variation in SBP explained by the age and adiposity measures increased from the traditional to urbanized groups in males (2.4% to 24.8%) and females (11.4% to 43.6%). A similar trend was observed in case of DBP in both males (0.2% to 15.4%) and females (7.6% to 21.8%). Analysis of covariance of the pooled sample suggested that each of five categorical variables—physical activity, smoking, income, food habit, and group membership—independently explained a significant amount of residual variation in SBP of males, while only food habit and social status did so in females. DBP variation, however, was significantly accounted for by only three of the five (excluding food habit and smoking) categorical variables in males and by none in females. The effect of categorical variables on the residual variation in SBP becomes increasingly significant from the traditional to the urbanized groups in males, while this trend is not consistent in females. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 10:5–21, 1998. © 1998 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
B. Nirmala Reddy (Thu,) conducted a cross-sectional in Blood pressure (n=1,119). Adiposity was evaluated on Variation in systolic and diastolic blood pressures. Adiposity measures and age explained an increasing amount of variation in systolic blood pressure from traditional to urbanized groups (2.4% to 24.8% in males, 11.4% to 43.6% in females).