American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol 5, 274-278, Copyright © 1957 by The American Society for Clinical Nutrition, Inc.

Obesity and Hypertension Among Young Adults

¹ From the Department of Medicine and Student Health Service, School of Medicine, The University of Chicago

Using 140 mm Hg systolic blood pressure limit as a criterion for hypertension, and the Broca formula as the criterion for obesity in a young adult population (3,508 college students) it was found that the difference in the incidence of obesity between the normotensive and hypertensive students was statistically highly significant (26.5 per cent of the normotensives and 47 per cent of the hypertensives were obese).

The incidence of hypertension was 8.1 per cent among the American and 4.9 per cent among the foreign-born males. It was found that 979 or 27.9 per cent of the students (29 per cent of the males and 23.9 per cent of the females) were overweight. Tue incidence of hypertension was 4.9 per cent and 11.3 per cent, respectively, among the non-obese and the obese students. The difference is highly significant, there being more than twice as many hypertensives among the obese as among the non-obese. Of the obese 12.4 per cent and of the non-obese 6.3 per cent of the American males were hypertensive.

No significant difference was found in the different age groups in respect to hypertension and obesity. No increase in the incidence of hypertensive obesity was found with increasing age below the age of forty. The incidence of obesity gradually increased among foreign-born students with increasing number of years of American residency.