Title: Salt Consumption, Obesity and Hypertension in Young Adult Girls in Mumbai
In Indian adolescents and young adults, prevalence of hypertension is increasing. Increased prevalence is because of many factors like change in eating habits, consumption of processed food, food junk and sedentary lifestyle. Hypertension which develops in childhood/ adolescence persists in adulthood. Therefore this study was conducted to determine salt consumption, obesity and hypertension in girls between 18-20 years of age. The study included 120 girls from different colleges in Mumbai. Data was collected using a questionnaire. Height, weight was measured and BMI was calculated. Blood pressure was measured using a digital sphygmomanometer. Seventy-nine girls had normal blood pressure whereas 41 girls were hypertensive. In the hypertensive group 11 girls had elevated BP, 18 girls had stage I HT and 12 girls had stage II hypertension. There was a significant correlation between BMI and HT. In the study 36.7% girls were underweight and 23.3% girls were overweight 4.5% girls were obese. The highest percentage of underweight girls was observed in stage II hypertension (41.7%). Girls were found to be consuming a lot of salty foods (pickle, pizza, burger, cheese, mayonnaise, Indian fried snacks- chakali, kachori, salted boondi, salted peanuts, popcorn, cheeselings, French fries, soya chips, corn chips, wheat puffs etc). No significant correlation was observed between sodium intake and BP. However, the highest mean consumption of salty foods was found in stage I HT subjects compared to elevated and stage II HT subjects. Sedentary activity was reported by 92% subjects. Only 6.7% had moderate activity and very few (0.8%) were doing heavy physical activity. The present study suggests that healthy diets and physical activity are important to reduce the risk of hypertension in young girls.
Professor Rita Patil teaches at Maniben Nanavati Women’s College, affiliated with SNDT Women’s University in Mumbai.