The Association Between Obesity and Visit-to-visit Variability in Systolic Blood Pressure: A Prospective Study
Abstract With the prevalence of obesity and all accompanying health risks, both prevention and health education, as well as identifying predictors for the development of obesity-related diseases are primary. Th e pathophysiological relationship between obesity and visit-to-visit variability in systolic blood pressure (SBPV) has not been completely resolved. To investigate the association between obesity and SBPV in hypertensive patients. Th e prospective study comprised three visits was performed at the hypertension outpatient clinic during the follow up period of 22-months between March 2014 and January 2016. Th is study included 300 randomly selected hypertensive patients (average 67.76±9.84 years), who were divided in groups of obese/non-obese examinees. SBPV was defined as the standard deviation (SD) from three values of SBP. Th e values of SBP and SBP-SD were significantly higher in the group of obese hypertensive patients than in the group of non-obese patients (126.67±8.22 vs 120.45±7.79 mmHg, 11.00±5.64 vs 7.34±3.96; p<0.01). Th e highest SBPV was recorded in the 4th quartile in obese patients (43.13±7.50 mmHg). Th ere was statistically stronger correlation between SBPV and BMI/Waist cirumferences (WC) (ρο=0.425/ ρο=0.356, p<0.01). During 22-months follow up there was a significant decrease of SBPV for 8.2 mmHg, BP for 31/8 mmHg, BMI for 3.8 kg/m2, WC for 10 cm and body weight for 8.24 kg. During 22-months follow-up, reduction of body weight was associated with reduction of blood pressure variability in hypertensive patients. Persistently decrease both body weight and long term visit-to-visit variability may explain lower cardiovascular risk in obese-related disease.