Association of high blood pressure with body mass index, smoking and physical activity in healthy young adults

Introduction: The purpose of this study was to examine the associations between resting blood pressure (BP), smoking, physical activity (PA) and body mass index (BMI) in Greek young adults.

Materials and methodology: A standardised questionnaire and the Greek version of IPAQ-short were given to 1500 randomly selected health science students, in order to record smoking behaviour, PA status, BMI and resting BP. All healthy young adults aged 19-30 years old were eligible. The final size of the study cohort was 1249 students (522 men).

Results: Males' BP was 129.2/77.0 mmHg, significantly higher than the females' values of 119.9/73.4 mmHg. Approximately 17% of the total population were classified as overweight and 3% as obese. In the overall population, smoking prevalence was 35.2%, with 15.3% being heavy smokers (≥21 cigs/d). Smoking prevalence did not differ significantly between sexes. The prevalence of health-enhancing PA (high PAclass) was only 14.0%, while 42.8% of the study population were classified as insufficiently active (low PAclass). Of the three lifestyle risk factors examined, only BMI was significantly and directly associated with systolic and diastolic BP levels. The prevalence of hypertension (≥140/90 mmHg) was significantly higher in men compared to women, and in obese and overweight participants compared to normal-weight subjects. Smoking and categorical PA (PAclass) were not correlated with BP. Continuous vigorous PAscore was significantly and directly associated with systolic BP, but only in males.

Conclusion: BMI was significantly and directly associated with resting BP in both sexes. Smoking prevalence and PA status were not associated with BP in this sample of Greek young adults.