Relationships between weight change and changes in blood pressure and serum lipids in men and women

An examination was made of the relationships between weight change and changes in blood pressure and serum lipids over a five-year period in apparently healthy men and women not engaging in a systematic regime of diet and/or weight control. Weight change was positively correlated with systolic and diastolic blood pressure, cholesterol, and triglycerides, though the correlation coefficients were small (0.11 to 0.28) and not statistically significant for systolic blood pressure and cholesterol for men, and triglycerides for women. After controlling for the effects of differences in age, weight, physical work capacity and initial values in risk factors, and for changes in physical work capacity, weight change in women was found to account independently for a proportion of the variance of changes in systolic blood pressure (3 per cent), diastolic blood pressure (6 per cent), and cholesterol (2 per cent); in men weight change was independently related only to change in diastolic blood pressure (4 per cent). Subjects with elevated blood pressure (diastolic greater than or equal to 95 mmHg) were apparently more sensitive to weight change than those with 'normal' blood pressure. It was concluded that in free-living populations the relationships between weight change and changes in blood pressure and lipids are not strong, and that the general value of weight control in this context may have been exaggerated.