Journal of Clinical Nutrition & Dietetics

Dietary Habits, Body Mass Index Status and Blood Pressure of Older adults in the Tano North District of Ghana

Background: Hypertension is a contributing factor of cardiovascular diseases, causing morbidity and mortality around the globe. Poor dietary habit is among the multifactorial cause of hypertension, leading to disease complications. This study investigated dietary habits, anthropometric status and blood pressure levels of older adults at Tano North District in the Bone East Region of Ghana.

Results: Majority of the older adults responded to consuming sugar-sweetened beverages (74.7%) and ate outside home (80.3%), but, less numbers daily or weekly engaged in these practices. The prevalence of obesity, abdominal obesity and high blood pressure among older adults was 10.1%, 34.8% and 46.0% respectively. When age and gender of older adults were adjusted in the correlation analysis model, there was a weak, positive correlation between body mass index and systolic (r=0.240, p=0.001) and diastolic blood pressure (r=0.200, p=0.005). Divorced older adults, participants who did not take sugar sweetened drink (OR: 0.5 95% CI: 0.3-1.0, p=0.050), ate outside home 2-4 times per week (OR: 0.4 95% CI: 0.2-0.9, p=0.033) and chose meals based on health (OR: 0.5 95% CI: 0.2-0.9, p=0.036) were more likely to have normal blood pressure level.

Conclusion: Majority of the older adults in this study were classified as overweight (30.9%) and obese (11.2%) and, 46.0% had uncontrolled blood pressure and poor dietary habit, which increase their risk of hypertension complications and other chronic diseases. There is the need for comprehensive age-appropriate nutrition education among older adults in the communities to develop good dietary habits, so as to manage the condition appropriately and reduce the burden of hypertension complications.

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Author(s):

Charles Apprey, Gilbert Owiah Sampson*, Helina Gyamea, Yaa Asantweaa Kafui Klu

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