The relationship of physiological and environmental factors to blood pressure

A study was performed in which the relative effects of a number of physiological and environmental fators on blood pressure were evaluated. Data for the evaluation was collected from a population of female subjects ranging in age from 18 to 45 years. The independent variables included in the study were age, resting heart rate, sodium intake, alcohol consumption, cigarette smoking, body fat percentage, physical activity, and oral contraceptive use. The evaluation of the data was performed using a stepwise multiple regression (Statistical Analysis System software package), both to evaluate the significance level of each variable, and to develop linear regression models for systolic and diastolic blood pressure. The results indicate strong correlations between systolic blood pressure and body fat percentage, age, resting heart rate, sodium intake, and cigarette smoking. Strong correlations were also seen between diastolic blood pressure and body fat percentage, age, resting heart rate, oral contraceptive use, and cigarette smoking. Less significant correlations were observed for physical activity and alcohol consumption. This is believed to be due to superposition of the body fat percentage effect over the related effects of physical activity and alcohol consumption.