High out-of-clinic blood pressure is associated with adiposity indicators in leisure physical activity practitioners in Midwest Brazil.

Background: Several diseases, such as obesity, hypertension and type 2 diabetes are frequently associated with metabolic abnormalities, high costs of healthcare and morbi-mortality; thus the aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between out-of-clinic high blood pressure and chronic disease-associated adiposity indicators in practitioners of leisure physical activity.

Methods: A cross-sectional study with 414 subjects of both genders aged 24-65 years. Data were collected by trained interviewers in five public parks. Body Mass Index (BMI), triceps skinfold and waist circumference (WC) were evaluated. Exercise training, smoking status, alcohol consumption and hypertension diagnosis were self-reported. Casual glycemia concentrations were collected and blood pressure was measured out-of-clinic once during the study. Participants with systolic ≥ 140 mmHg and diastolic ≥ 90 mmHg blood pressures were classified as high blood pressure. All analyses were adjusted for age and sex.

Results: High-blood pressure was diagnosed in 31.4% ( n  = 130), but 34 (8.3%) from patients took medication anti-hypertensive and were previously hypertension diagnosed. Participants with high blood pressure had a higher BMI (25.66 vs. 26.87 kg/m2 ; p  = 0.012), WC (90.92 vs. 95.02 cm; p  = 0.001), and systolic and diastolic blood pressure ( p  <  0.0001) when compared to subjects with normal blood pressure. Logistic regression analysis revealed that overweight status assessed by BMI, triceps skinfold and WC increases the high blood pressure probability by approximately 1.61 (95 CI%: 1.06-2.45), 1.02 (95%CI: 1.01-1.05) and 1.61 (95%CI: 1.06-2.45), respectively.

Conclusions: Adiposity indicators are associated with high out-of-clinic blood pressure measured in practitioners of leisure physical activity.