Blood Pressure Assessment in Undergraduate Medical Students: Impact of Gender, Body Mass Index and Family History of Hypertension

Abstract

Increase blood pressure is considered to be a silent killer which lead to increase in morbidity and mortality, so it is necessary to determine the subjects with high risk at an early stage in order to inhibit the disease progression and its co-morbid conditions. This study aimed to measure the blood pressure of undergraduate medical students and its relation to specific risk factors (gender, body mass index and family history of hypertension).The study was performed in College of Medicine in Babylon University in the period from December 2014 to April 2015 and included 330 students. Some variables were taken from the history in addition to measurement of weight, height, systolic and diastolic blood pressure. The results revealed that regarding systolic blood pressure, 15% of students had prehypertension and 8% of students were hypertensive while for diastolic blood pressure, 32% had prehypertension and 4% were hypertensive. There was significant correlation between systolic and diastolic blood pressure with male gender, body mass index and family history of hypertension (P ≤ 0.05).This study revealed high prevalence of prehypertension and in less extent hypertension among college students and this problem represented a neglected issue.