Hypertension in urban Mexico: the 1992-93 national survey of chronic diseases.

The purpose of this work is to estimate the prevalence of hypertension in the urban population of Mexico. We studied a multistage national sample representative of the urban population in 417 cities of over 2500 people. The blood pressure of 14 657 individuals (6053 men and 8604 women) aged 20-69 years was measured after a 5-min rest using a standard mercury sphygmomanometer. The survey personnel had been previously trained and standardised. The main results show a crude prevalence of hypertension, as defined by the JNC VI, of 28.1% in women and 37.5% in men (27.2% and 37.1% age-adjusted). Both genders exhibited a trend of increasing hypertension with age. In individuals under 50 years of age, women had lower rates than men, but the difference disappeared in the older groups. The awareness of hypertension (28%) as well as the success of treatment (22%) were low in our sample. Our results had more similarities than differences with respect to those observed in other national surveys. It is concluded that hypertension in Mexico is an important public health problem similar to that seen in developing and developed nations. Efforts should be aimed at strengthening measures to prevent and control hypertension in Mexico. More information is needed of the sort obtained from longitudinal studies.

Alcohol consumption and gastric cancer in Mexico.

This paper presents an assessment of alcohol consumption, including the popular Mexican liquor tequila, in relation to the incidence of gastric cancer. We conducted a population-based case-control study in Mexico City, with 220 gastric cancer cases and 752 population-based controls. A food frequency questionnaire was used to measure consumption of alcohol and other dietary items. Grams of ethanol were estimated by the Food Intake Analysis System 3.0 software. After adjustment for known risk factors, wine consumption was positively associated with the risk of developing gastric cancer (OR=2.93; CI 95% 1.27-6.75) in the highest category of wine consumption, corresponding to at least 10 glasses of wine per month, with a significant trend (p=0.005). This association remained among intestinal (OR=2.16; CI 95% 0.68-6.92, p-value for trend=0.031 ) and diffuse (OR=4.48; CI 95% 1.44-13.94, p-value for trend=0.018 ) gastric cancer cases. A borderline significant trend between GC risk and total ethanol intake was observed (p=0.068). Consumption of beer and distilled alcoholic beverages including brandy, rum, and tequila was not associated with GC risk. The results indicate the need to focus on the study of the potential effects of different types of wine, with emphasis on components other than ethanol regarding the incidence of gastric cancer, even among populations with moderate to low levels of alcohol consumption.

[Normal values of arterial pressure in adolescent students in the Federal District, Mexico]. / Valores normales de tensión arterial en escolares adolescentes en el Distrito Federal, México.

The studies of blood pressure (BP) in the adolescence are important because the growth and development, as well as the exposure to risk factors that begins in this period gives a good opportunity to make research on the behavior of BP and its modification in adulthood. We carried out a transversal study. Our sample was made by random conglomerates, multistage; we studied 1,123 children from 12 to 15 years on Mexico City. The behavior of the BP cifers for the males was that as age increases they increase at an average of 3 mmHg per year, in females we did not find this. When we compared the percentilar values by age and sex with studies carried out in the US, we had similar results.

[Percentile curves of arterial tension in school children from Mexico City]. / Curvas percentilares de tensión arterial en escolares de la Ciudad de México.

Hypertensive heart disease has an important place among the cardiovascular diseases. There are evidences that the behavior of arterial tension (AT) in children can predict the possible appearance of arterial hypertension (AH) in the adult. The foreign percentile curves, when applied to our population, show either under or overestimation of the cases. This is the reason for the need of having our own percentile tables. In this study we found different mean values for systolic and diastolic arterial tension (SAT and DAT) between the sexes, being these higher for the males, but these differences had no statistical significance. We present percentile tables for AT per sex against age, weight, height and corpulence index (CI). According to WHO, when a child has three measurement over the 95 percentile he should be considered AH. The tables for height, weight, and CI should be used only under special circumstances.