Overweight and obesity as risk factors in hypertension--study of the working population

Obesity is one of the major epidemiological problems in developed countries; it is also one of the main risk factors for hypertension. It is estimated that about 80% of hypertension cases in Poland are related to an increase in body mass.

The main aim of the study was to investigate overweight and obesity in terms of being risk factors for arterial hypertension.

The study population consisted of randomly selected working adults living in the Swietokrzyskie province in Poland The research tools included a questionnaire inquiring about data concerning healthy habits, as well as measuring blood pressure, body mass, height and waist circumference.

The study group consisted of 599 people (55.3% females and 44.7% males) aged 18-67; 67.8% of the study subjects were white-collar workers and 36.2% were blue-collar workers; 44.9% of our respondents were overweight and 22.8% were obese. Hypertension occurred significantly more fequently (p < 0.01) among blue-collar (54.4%) than among white-collar workers (43.2%). Our analysis showed a statistically significant difference in the prevalence of hypertension among employees of various economic sectors (p < 0.01). Hypertension and body mass increase were more frequent among men (p < 0.001). Hypertension occurred in people with higher levels of Body Mass Index (BMI) and Waist Circumference (WC) (p < 0.001).

The data confirm the correlation between frequency of overweight and obesity and prevalence of arterial hypertension Active and proper prevention of obesity among the working population could lower the risk of arterial hypertension.