Relationship between obesity and psychosocial risk factors in hypertensive patients

Unhealthy lifestyle habits, including sedentary behaviour and improper diet are major risk factors for obesity. Overweight is very frequent in hypertensive and type 2 diabetic patients. Psychosocial factors are associated with multiple health behaviors related to overweight/obesity. The aim of the study was to evaluate the relationship between obesity and psychosocial risk factors in hypertensive patients having different levels of education. Material and methods: 623 hypertensive patients, admitted to the Cardiovascular Rehabilitation Clinic in Tirgu Mureș were evaluated by weight, height, waist circumference, laboratory analyses and psychosocial risk based on a validated questionnaire on nine topics.The study was approved by the Ethical Committees of theMureș Emergency Clinical County Hospital and that of the UMPhSTGEP. Statistics were performed by IBM-SPSS-22, GraphPad-InStat-3.Results: Obesity or overweight affected 86.9% of the studied hypertensive patients. Obesity was more frequent in subjects having type 2 diabetes as comorbidity. Mean BMI was significantly higher in the lower education group (p=0.007) compared to those with higher level of education. Average triglyceride and uric acid levels were significantly higher in obese subjects compared to those having lower BMI (p<0.0001). Patients living alone had significantly lower mean BMI (p=0.006) and waste circumference values (p=0.001) compared to those living with their spouse. Conclusions: Weight excess in very frequent in the studied hypertensive patients, especially in those with type 2 diabetes as comorbidity and having lower educational level. Hypertriglyceridemia and hyperuricemia occurred more frequently in obese subjects compared to non-obese ones. Overweight is less frequent in patients living alone. Keywords: hypertension, obesity, overweight, psychosocial risk factors