The effects of family income on the relationship of various anthropometric parameters with blood pressure in male population of Multan

Abstract

A randomly selected sample of 497 human males, ageing from 18 to 90 years and representing different ethnic and socio-economic groups of Multan was taken. Income (Rs.), height (cm), weight(kg), BMI (kg m/sup -2), circumferences and blood pres one of the six different income groups i.e., <5000, <10000, <15000, <20000, <25000 and >25000.Mean values plus minus SEM of income, weight, height, BMI, arm, neck, waist, hips and total circumferences, were 13881.6 plus minus 1835.6, 64.0 plus minus 0.5, 171.6 plus minus 2.9, 21.5 plus minus 0.2, 26.5 plus minus 0.1, 36.2 plus minus 0.1, 81.4 plus minus 0.5, 93.0 plus minus 0.4 and 237.2 plus minus 0.9 respectively. Systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP), pulse pressure (PP) and mean arterial pressure (MAP) were 122.2 plus minus 0.5, 80.7 plus minus 0.4, 41.5 plus minus 0.5 and 94.5 plus minus 0.4 respectively. All these parameters were also recorded and analysed in different income groups. The prevalence of obesity and hypertension was found to be 3.6% and 11.4% in the total sample. The correlation and regression coefficients between different independent (income, weight, height, BMI, circumferences) and dependent (SBP, DBP, PP and MAP) parameters were calculated and it was observed that there was a strong association between different parameters (P<0.01 or P<0.05). The regression coefficients of BMI with SBP, DBP, PP and MAP were 0.744 mmHg, 0.449 mmHg, 0.296 mmHg and 0.551 per unit of BMI, respectively (P<0.001). The arm, neck, waist, hip and total circumference had regression coefficients with SBP, DBP, and MAP as, arm 0.879, 0.547, 0.667, neck 1.020, 0.660, 0.788, waist 0.244, 0.162, 0.149, hip 0.348, 0.181, 0.238 and total 0.142, 0.855, 0.105 (P<0.01) respectively. It was found that weight and BMI are more important for the prediction of blood pressure whereas all the circumferences had weak association with blood pressure.