Lifestyle and hypertension in rural population of Tangestan town, Iran

BACKGROUND: Hypertension is an important health problem in developed countries and the risk factors of this complication are related to the individuals' lifestyle, with most of them being modifiable. The present study was conducted with the aim to investigate the relationship between lifestyle and primary hypertension among the people referring to health centers of Tangestan Town, Iran, in 2017. METHODS: This study was a case-control study carried out on 100 patients with hypertension and 100 subjects as the control group living in the villages of Tangestan who had a health record in health centers. Data were collected through the international health promoting behaviors (HPLP-II) questionnaire and were analyzed using descriptive and analytical statistics in SPSS software. RESULTS: The mean and standard deviation (SD) of the body mass index (BMI) scores were 26.27 ± 4.09 and 26.20 ± 4.30 in the case and control groups, respectively, and there was no significance difference between the two groups (P > 0.050). The mean total score of overall health promotion behavior in the case and control groups was respectively 133.27 ± 29.72 and 135.84 ± 29.39 out of 208. In the case and control groups, the highest and lowest scores in the subgroups were associated with the nutritional status and physical activity, respectively. However, there was no significant difference between the lifestyle dimensions of the two groups (P > 0.050). CONCLUSION: Regarding overweight and lack of activity among the studied participants, it is necessary to perform the intervention based on psychological principles for the people prone to hypertension, especially those having positive history among their family members.