Relationship between Body Mass Index and Hypertension among Police Officers in Port Harcourt

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Amidstthe ravaging burden of obesity and hypertension in developing countries, there is limited information on the contribution of Body Mass Index (BMI) to Blood Pressure (BP). This study investigates the relationship between BMI and hypertension among police officers in Port Harcourt. A total of 245 police subjects between the ages of 21-60 years were used for the study. The subjects were divided into three major groups; Administrative, Traffic and Mobile police officers. Their mean blood pressure (systolic and diastolic) was measured and their BMI, calculated as weight (kg) divided height (m2). The result showed the BMI of the males increased with age in contrast to the females that was independent of age as shown by the z-test of the means BMI of the sample police men and police women. Also, hypertension was prevalent among the major groups, with the prevalence of hypertension higher among obese officers (22.90%) in comparison with non-obese hypertensive (17.55%) and nonhypertensive obese (15.90%) in both male and female police. The result from the study also showed the correlation between systolic blood pressure – obesity and diastolic blood pressure -obesity for hypertensive and obese police subjects were (-0.738 and 0.403; -0.3.69 and 0.312) respectively. This shows there was a significant relationship between hypertension and obesity.

Highblood pressure (hypertension) is a blood pressure disorder characterized by a persistent increase in both systolic (pressure>140mmHg) and diastolic (pressure>90mmHg) pressures respectively. Reports have it that, high Blood Pressure (BP) is estimated to cause 7.1 million deaths, about 13% of the total globally. Research reports emphasize that overweight and obesity increases the risk of high BP, coronary heart disease, ischemic stroke, type II diabetes mellitus and certain cancers. Globally, about 58% of diabetes mellitus and 21% of ischemic heart disease are attributable to BMI above 21 kg/m2. Obesity predisposes an individual to a number of cardiovascular risk factors including hypertension and elevated blood cholesterol. In women, hypertension in over weight/obesity individuals is nearly three times higher in comparison with normal adult females and the risk in overweight males is nearly six times greater than in normal adult males.