ABSTRACT

Background: Body mass index (BMI) is a guide to measure the general health of a person based on the weight and height ratio. Via this index, a person can be aware of their body status and also can avert from a risk disease such as hypertension, obesity or other heart related diseases. Meanwhile, blood pressure test (comprised of systolic and diastolic blood pressures) measures the pressure of the blood in the circulatory system. Through this test, a person will know whether he has a normal blood pressure level (120/80 mmHg) or an abnormal blood pressure level (hypertension or hypotension).

Aim: To find out whether there was correlation between BMI and blood pressure among the middle age group in Malaysia (40 – 60 years old) according to age, gender and race. Methodology: In this study, we included 167 participants of age group 40-60 with 74 males (42 Malays, 18 Chinese and 14 Indians) and 93 females (55 Malays, 22 Chinese and 16 Indians), after seeking ethical approval from the ethical review board of SEGi University, Kota Damansara. Participants were randomly selected in this cross-sectional study. The weighing machine and stadiometer were used to measure the weight and height of participants’ respectively. The BMI was calculated using the formula BMI = Weight/Height2 (kg/m2). All the data collected in this study was analysed using SPSS version 22.0. Results: Our results showed that, Malay males and females had the highest BMI value, followed by Chinese and Indians in males, but in females, it was followed by Indians and Chinese. Our results also showed that in both genders, Indians had the highest mean value of systolic blood pressure followed by Malays and Chinese respectively. Our results even showed that, Indian males and Chinese females had the highest mean value of diastolic blood pressure. Malay and Chinese males had same mean value. Malay and Indian females also had the same mean value. Our results showed statistically significant correlation between BMI and systolic blood pressure in overall participants (N=167, p-value=0.000 for p≤0.05 and r value=0.285), male participants (N=74, p-value=0.004 for p≤0.05 and r value=0.145) and female participants (N=93, p-value=0.000 for p≤0.05 and r value=0.362). Similarly, our result also showed statistically significant correlation between body mass index and diastolic blood pressure in overall participants (N=167, p-value=0.006 for p≤0.05 and r value=0.213), male participants (N=74, p-value=0.004 for p≤0.05 and r value=0.163) and female participants (N=93, p-value=0.008 for p≤0.05 and r value=0.275).

Conclusion: The statistically significant correlation which was observed in our study between BMI and blood pressure could be used by middle age group in acknowledging their health care awareness by improving their lifestyle via maintaining body weight and having suitable blood pressure so that to avoid getting obesity related diseases.

Keywords: BMI, BP,