OVERWEIGHT AND HYPERTENSION - DATA FROM THE 1992-1993 MEXICAN SURVEY

Data of the 1992-1993 Mexican Survey of Chronic Diseases in the Urban Adult Population were analyzed to investigate the effects of age and s ex on the association between overweight and hypertension. Blood press ure, body weight, and height were measured in a group of 13 945 Mexica ns aged 20 to 69 years living in towns and cities larger than 15 000 p eople. Hypertension was defined following the recommendations of the J oint National Committee for Detection, Evaluation, and Treatment of Hi gh Blood Pressure-V. Overweight was defined following the recommendati ons of the National Institutes of Health Consensus on Health and Obesi ty. The prevalence of types of hypertension was higher in men than in women, particularly in the groups of 20 to 39 years of age. Cross-clas sification of subjects according to the presence of hypertension and o verweight confirmed the association between both variables. The odds r atio and 95% confidence intervals indicated that overweight was associ ated with systolic and diastolic hypertension and with isolated diasto lic hypertension in women and, to a lesser extent, in men. This associ ation was not found in the 60- to 69-year group in both sexes. Overwei ght did not show significant association with isolated systolic hypert ension in both sexes. Results of a multiple logistic regression analys is of overweight on hypertension, controlling for age and sex, were co nsistent with these findings. It is suggested that other factors, inde pendent of overweight, explain the observed gender-specific difference s in the prevalence of hypertension in younger age groups. The hormona l environment of young women is one of the mentioned factors modifying the prevalence of hypertension in this group of the Mexican urban adu lt population.