<b>Altered levels of arterial pressure in young people, related with the factors sex, skin color, and familiar history of systemic arterial hypertension</b> - DOI: 10.4025/cienccuidsaude.v7i0.6556

Abstract

Efforts in order to establish a precocious diagnosis of alterations in arterial pressure based on epidemiological information of young peoplasdfflicted with these alterations are welcome in the approach to arterial hypertension. Thus, the present study had as objective to check for changes in blood pressure in 207 young people, between 17 and 24 years old, from the first years of undergraduate courses at the Centro de Ciências da Saúde da Universidade Estadual de Maringá – PR – Brazil, and the correlation with the risk factors gender, ethnic group, and family history of systemic arterial hypertension. The pressure 120X180mmHg was considered normal, following orientations of the VII Joint National Committee (VII JNC). The results indicated a greater prevalence of alterations in males, in students with a family history of arterial hypertension and in students of Oriental descend. The only statistic significance obtained was for pressure difference between men and women (p <0.05). There was a prevalence of 27% of men with elevated arterial pressure, whereas in women we obtained values of only 2.2%. Among the students with altered pressure levels, 70% affirmed to have cases of systemic arterial hypertension in the family, 13% did not know how to answer and 17% denied the presence of cases. We also detected a prevalence of 18.5% of students with altered pressure arterial levels among those of Oriental descent. The results found in this work indicate the need for research with a larger sample that discriminates more efficiency the risk factors related to arterial hypertension, and the adoption of a continuous policy of monitoring arterial pressure for those people who belongs to young age groups.