Physical activity and anthropometric indicators related to hypertension in women

Abstract

Introduction: The following research aims at identifying the relationship between physical activity, body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference (WC) with hypertension among women. Materials and Methods: It was chosen 145 women submitted to height, BMI, WC and blood pressure measurements. The cut-off points for BMI and WC followed previous definitions shown in literature. The evaluation of physical activity was given by the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ), short version. The descriptive method, frequency distribution and logistic regression, directed to obtain the Odds Ratio, with confidence interval (CI) of 95% adopting p<0.05, were used. Results: Physical activity did not associate with hypertension, and significant Odds Ratio was found for overweight (OR=6.36; IC=1.49-27.09; p=0.01), obesity (OR=26.70; IC=6.19-115.09; p=0.00) e WC level of action 2 (OR=25.71; IC=6.44-102.70; p=0.00). Discussion: The regular physical activity is recommended for the blood pressure control; nevertheless, this research found no ratio to hypertension, but the anthropometric indexes were efficient on this proposal.