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Abstract
The incidence of hypertension was studied in fifty- seven male and sixtythree female subjects.
At the onset of the study, the subjects were asked their age, weights and heights
were measured using a weighing scale. The balance has a graduated meter rule
which was used to measure height. The weight was measured to the nearest 0.5
kg with the subject wearing light clothing and their shoes removed. The height
was measured without shoes. Body mass index was calculated as weight in
kilograms divided by height in meter squared.
Blood pressure (BP) and pulse rate were measured after the subject had
been sitting upright for at least 5 minutes with an automatic
sphygmomanometer. Hypertension was defined as a systolic BP
and/or diastolic blood BP
140 mmHg
Mean and standard deviations were obtained from the results of the analysis.
T-test was used as a test of different for the study.
This study has exposed the food consumption pattern, anthropometric and
lipid status of the hypertensive outpatients in University College Hospital, the
extent at which factors such as age, education and socio-economic status, health
situation and food consumption pattern affect the hypertensive patients.
This study has shown that the prevalence of hypertension is highest in age group
30-39 years and 50-59 years. This is consistent with earlier study in Ibadan,
Nigeria.
(Akinkugbe, 1999).
Several studies in both developed and developing countries have consistently
show a positive relationship between age and pressure (Singh, 1997 and Whelton,
1994)
Interestingly, hypertensive females have significantly higher total cholesterol than
their male counterparts, suggesting that hypercholesterolemia rather than
hypertriglyceridemia may be more associated with CHD in female than males in
this population.
The result of body mass index in classifying the respondents into various
categories of nutritional status revealed that few of the respondents were
classified as normal (7% male, 15.9% female) while over nutrition cut across the
sexes.