Relationship of body compositional and nutritional parameters with blood pressure in adults.

BACKGROUND: Obesity has been regarded as a single best predictor and major controllable contributor to hypertension. The present study aimed to assess the relationship between body compositional and nutritional parameters with blood pressure in rural Bengalee adults. METHODS: Anthropometric measures, blood pressure and nutritional parameters were measured in 522 rural Bengalee adults using standard protocols. Receiver operating characteristic analysis was carried out to identify cut-off values of body mass index (BMI) and percentage of body fat (BF%) as associated factors of hypertension and hypotension. RESULTS: Most of the subjects were normotensive. However, a notable percentage had hypertension (males: 21.86%; females: 15.27%), although the prevalence of hypotension was low (males: 10.53%; females: 8.73%). Obesity indicators were significantly higher in hypertensive individuals than hypotensive and normotensive individuals. All anthropometric parameters and obesity indicators were significantly correlated (P < 0.001) with blood pressure. Blood pressure increased steadily from being underweight through to normal and then to overweight/obese individuals. There were significant differences in the percentage of hypertension and hypotension between nutritional categories. Blood pressure had significant positive correlation with energy, carbohydrate and fat intake, whereas protein and calcium were negatively associated with blood pressure. The suggested cut-off values of BMI and BF%, which were taken as associated factors of hypertension, were 21.86 kg m⁻² and 20.31%, and those of hypotension were 18.18 kg m⁻² and 13.3%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: In lean rural Bengalee populations, high BMI levels may be associated with an increased risk of hypertension. The cut-off values of BMI and BF% in the present study suggested associated factors for cardiovascular risk factors and these values may be of help with respect to reducing mean population blood pressure levels.

An evaluation of musculoskeletal disorder and socioeconomic status of farmers in West Bangal, India.

Rice cultivation contains several tasks and workers were compelled to adopt some harmful and awkward posture during performing those tasks. These type repetitive jobs may be related to occupational health hazards like musculoskeletal disorder (MSD). In the present investigation different MSD related problems of the workers have been assessed and also identify the socioeconomic status of the farmers considering the issues of community health development. In this connection a simple and easily applicable questionnaire technique has been apply in the agricultural field during performing rice cultivation tasks. The results showed that a large number of workers could not complete their primary education (33.0% to 43.0%) and remained below the poverty line (91.3%). From the MSD assessment lower back problem was prevalent (48.8%) among the workers when all rice cultivation tasks were consider together, but it was extremely prevalent in reaping job (92.0%) and transplantation job (84.0%). It was concluded that MSD among the workers might be related to the stressful work posture, long duration jobs, nature of jobs and use of ill-fitted hand tools. So, some free-hand exercise, proper work-rest scheduled and awareness program may be helpful for reducing the MSD and proper handling of hand tools.