Risk Factors of Hypertension among Korean Adults

Park, Hyun Ah; Kim, Young Sik; Sun, Woo Sung

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Our study was done to identify the risk factors of hypertension in order to implement primary prevention strategy in Korean healthy adults.
METHODS
The subjects, who had received medical examination at the Health Promotion Center of Asan Medical Center from June 1990 to February 1991, were included in the Asan Cohort Study. A total of 1,329 men and 886 women were followed up to June 2000. The subjects who initially had hypertension or coronary heart disease or were diagnosed with hypertension within 1 year after study enrollment were excluded. Incident cases were ascertained through the chart review, telephone contacts, and follow up examination. During the follow-up period, 140 male and 76 female hypertension incident cases occurred. For each case one normotensive control was selected, matched on sex, age, and follow-up period. We used conditional logistic regression for matched pairs to estimate odds ratio.
RESULTS
For men, daily alcohol intake, family history of hypertension and body mass index (BMI) were the risk factors of hypertension. Compared with non-drinkers, men who drank alcohol 20~29.9 g/day and over 30 g/day had adjusted relative risk for hypertension of 4.05 (95% confidence interval (CI) 1.09~15.08) and 1.37 (0.61~3.11), respectively. Family history of hypertension increased OR 5.35 times. Compared with men having BMI of less than 23 kg/ m2, the adjusted OR for men with BMI of 23~24.9 kg/m2 and over 25 kg/m2 were 2.39 (1.15~4.97) and 2.05 (0.96~4.39), respectively. For women, BMI was a risk factor of hypertension. Compared with women having BMI of less than 23 kg/m2, OR for women with BMI of 23~24.9 kg/m2 and over 25 kg/m2 were 3.51 (1.13~10.89) and 2.93 (1.28~6.72), respectively.
CONCLUSION
Our study proved that obesity (men and women), alcohol intake (men), and family history of hypertension (men) were risk factors of hypertension in Korean adults.