Elsevier

Preventive Medicine

Volume 31, Issue 4, October 2000, Pages 403-409
Preventive Medicine

Regular Article
7-Year Stability of Blood Pressure in the Canadian Population,☆☆

https://doi.org/10.1006/pmed.2000.0717Get rights and content

Abstract

Background. The purpose of the study was to examine the 7-year stability of systolic (SBP) and diastolic (DBP) blood pressures in the Canadian population.

Methods. The sample included 1,503 participants 7–69 years of age from the 1981 Canada Fitness Survey who were remeasured in Campbell's Survey of 1988. Both SBP and DBP were adjusted for the effects of body mass index (BMI) using regression procedures.

Results. Interage correlations from baseline to follow-up ranged from −0.17 to 0.61 for SBP and from −0.22 to 0.51 for DBP. With few exceptions, correlations were positive and significant, and were highest and most consistent in adulthood. Further, between 27 and 39% of participants in the upper or lower quintiles in 1981 remained there in 1988. There were few differences in adiposity between those who remained in the upper or lower quintiles and those who did not. One exception was that males who remained in the upper quintile of SBP had greater values for BMI, sum of skinfolds, and waist circumference at baseline. Among adults, the best predictor of future blood pressure was baseline blood pressure, which accounted for between 12 and 34% of the variance in follow-up blood pressure, followed by age, follow-up BMI, and, in females, baseline physical activity levels.

Conclusions. Blood pressure demonstrated low to moderate stability over 7 years in Canada, and baseline level of adiposity was related to the stability of SBP in males.

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    Special thanks to Cora Craig and her colleagues at the Canadian Fitness and Lifestyle Research Institute (CFLRI) for making available the 1981 Canada Fitness Survey and 1988 Campbell's Survey databases.

    ☆☆

    Partial research support was provided by a grant from the Medical Research Council of Canada (MT-13960) and the Polar Research Grant on Controlled Heart Rate Zone Exercise from the American College of Sports Medicine Foundation. Claude Bouchard is funded, in part, by the George A. Bray Chair in Nutrition.

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    To whom reprint requests should be addressed at Department of Kinesiology and Health Science, 352 Bethune College, York University, 4700 Keele Street, North York, Ontario Canada M3J 1P3. Fax: (416) 736-5774. E-mail: [email protected].

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