Association of general and abdominal obesity with hypertension in active elderly

Hypertension is a major cardiovascular risk factor, especially in the elderly population, being the increased body fat a predisposing factor for its occurrence. This study aimed to identify, among anthropometric indicators of general and abdominal obesity, those who show an association with hypertension in active elderly. Were evaluated blood pressure and anthropometry of 71 active women (65.5 ± 4.38 years) and subsequently calculated the body mass index, waist circumference, waist / hip ratio, conicity index and waist / height. For data analysis, each anthropometric index was categorized into tertiles, using binary logistic regression to analyze the magnitude of the associations. The prevalences found of hypertension, overweight and obesity were 32.4%, 49.3% and 15.5%, respectively. After adjusting for age, only waist circumference and waist / height had a significant association with hypertension (P <0.05). The active older women who were in the third tertile of waist circumference (> 94) and the waist / height (> 0.62) were 5.93 and 4.39 more likely to be hypertensive respectively.

Anthropometry; Hypertension; Physical exercise