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Home > Health Sciences > JHDRP > Vol. 11 (2018) > Iss. 4

 

Keywords

prehypertension (pHTN); obesity assessment; African-American; young adult; undergraduate

Disciplines

Epidemiology | Medicine and Health | Sociology

Abstract

The objective of this study is to examine prehypertension among young African American adults and evaluate the predictive value of easily obtained standard measures of adiposity. Data for this study of 155 primarily African-American undergraduates was collected between April 2010-11. Participants provided family health history and anthropometric measures, including body weight, body mass index (BMI), and waist to hip (WHR) ratio. Percentages were calculated for demographics. The average systolic blood pressure measured over two time periods within a single semester generated prehypertension rates. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression examined the impact of BMI, WHR, weight, and family medical history on prehypertension. A majority of participants (64%) were prehypertensive. Logistic regressions suggest that weight-related measures better predicted prehypertension than family history or WHR. In conclusion, this study showed prehypertensive risk was a significant problem among, young and primarily African-American adults. Furthermore, the best adiposity measure was weight, even when controlling for family history, WHR, and BMI.

Permissions

Cecile N. Yancu

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