[The Campodimele study: 24-hour blood pressure in rural life style subjects]

The present paper is aimed at investigating the daily blood pressure in subjects with a rural style of life with the purpose of detecting whether or not the blood pressure regimen is influenced as expected because of the stress less prominent in the non-urban areas. Control data were obtained by the study of age- and sex-matching subjects with a metropolitan style of life. The results indicate the blood pressure has a lower daily level in rural subjects as compared to urban subjects. The daily baric impact is also lower, suggesting that the blood pressure regimen is really less pronounced in those who live according to a rural style of life. Such a lower magnitude allows us to experimentally suggest that the rural life is concrete in protecting the hemodynamic system from the higher level of blood pressure which are observable in subjects who live according to a metropolitan style of life. Interestingly, the expected phase anticipation in blood pressure circadian rhythm of rural subjects was not detected, as the wake up time was not so anticipated to act as a synchronizer.