Abstract

ABSTRACT Background: Body mass index (BMI) is an important tool in medical diagnosis. With increase cases of obesity, hypertension and cardiovascular diseases especially in advanced ages especially in developing countries, documentation of relevant data would provide an essential roadmap in checkmating these health problems. Aims &
Objective: The study was designed to determine the association of blood pressure, BMI, and age among the Fulani ethnic population of Jama’are Bauchi state Nigeria.
Materials and Methods: The study was conducted in retrospective in General hospital Jama’are, Jama’are in Bauchi state, Nigeria. A total of one hundred and eighty (180) records of Fulani ethnic population comprised of 77(43%) females and 103(57%) males age range 5-65 years were collected from June to December, 2013. The subjects were divided into six different groups to study age trend with respect to blood pressure and BMI. The mean and standard deviation of the data were calculated and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) followed by post hoc (Tukey post hoc test) multiple comparison tests were carried out using Minitab (version 16) statistical software. This was followed by two samples t-test to find sexual dimorphism in the mean BP, BMI, height, and weight. Correlation analysis was also carried out between the age, BP and BMI.
Results: The mean blood pressures of the population were 118.55 ± 20.64 and 80.00 ± 14.14 for systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) respectively. The normal, underweight, obese, and overweight of the BMI range of the population were 86 (47.8%), 47 (26.1%), 18 (10.0%) and 29 (16.1%) respectively. The correlation coefficient between BMI, SBP, DBP and age were 0.65, 0.276 and 0.092 where (P >0.05) except for BMI and DBP (r = 0.225, P = 0.002). Conclusion: Although variable degrees of correlations exist between age, BMI and blood pressures, there was no statistically significant association between age, BMI and blood pressures, except for BMI and DBP.