Gemeinschaftsmedizin und Gesundheitserziehung

Abstrakt

Leisure Time Physical Activity and Hypertension: Evidence from the China Health & Nutrition Survey, 2004-2011

Zhou J, Britigan DH, Wang H, Rajaram SS and Su D

Background: The prevalence of hypertension has dramatically increased in the past several decades in China. At the same time, the level of physical activity among Chinese has significantly reduced. The association between leisure time physical activity and development of hypertension has not been thoroughly established, especially from an urban-rural perspective. The study thus sought to examine the associations in Chinese adults using longitudinal data, and the association’s difference in urban and rural community.

Methods: A total of 2,687 adults were included in the analysis. Multivariate logistic regressions and proportional hazard regressions were performed to assess the association after adjusting for possible confounding variables. Urban-rural differences were also investigated by stratified analysis.

Results: In the sample, 62.3% were from urban, 47.4% were men, and the mean age was 40. Adjusted estimates show that leisure time activity was a significant protector from developing hypertension (HR=0.60, 95% CI=0.41-0.87) in Chinese sample. The correlation was found to be significant among urban residents (HR=0.57, 95% CI=0.38-0.87), but not in rural participants (HR=0.91, 95% CI=0.36-2.33).

Conclusions: Leisure time physical activity and development of hypertension were significantly correlated with each other in Chinese. Promoting leisure time physical activity may be helpful in hypertension prevention and control in China. In addition, educating healthy diet and occupational physical activity pattern might be helpful in urban areas.