Blood pressure and its relationship with body composition among Han and Man medical students in Shenyang city

  Objective  To examine blood pressure and its relationship with body composition among Han and Man medical students in Shenyang city for providing evidences to hypertension prevention in the students.

  Methods  With cluster sampling, we recruited 2 189 Han and Man clinical and preventive medicine students aged 19 – 21 years in a university in Shenyang city and carried out blood pressure and anthropometric measurement in the students during May 2018. Multivariate linear regression was adopted in analysis on associations of body mass index (BMI) and waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) with blood pressure.

  Results  The age-specific mean systolic blood pressure (SBP) (mm Hg) of both the Han and Man male students were significantly higher than those of female students (135.30 ± 11.67 vs. 124.04 ± 18.81, 135.42 ± 14.56 vs. 120.62 ± 11.21, and 134.65 ± 13.31 vs. 122.27 ± 11.96 for the Han students aged 19, 20, and 21 years; 133.06 ± 14.95 vs. 121.10 ± 11.10 and 134.11 ± 11.66 vs. 120.66 ± 11.25 for the Man students aged 20 and 21 years; all P < 0.01), except for the Man students aged 19 years. Among the Han students, the detection rate of hypertension and normal high blood pressure were 15.4% and 11.5% in the Han students and 56.5% and 56.2% in the Man students, with significantly higher detection rate of hypertension among male Han and Man students than among female Han and Man students (both P < 0.05). Significantly decreased prevalence rate of normal high blood pressure with the increment of age was observed in both Han and Man female students (all P < 0.05). Linear regression results revealed significantly positive correlations between BMI and WHR with SBP and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) in the Han students (P < 0.01 for all); in the Man students, BMI and WHR were positively correlated significantly with SBP and DBP and BMI was positively associated with DBP significantly (P < 0.05 for all).

  Conclusion  Detection rate of hypertension and normal high blood pressure are high and high body mass index and waist-to-hip ratio are risk factors of hypertension among Han and Man medical students in Shenyang city, especially among the male students.