Body composition and hypertension: a comparative study involving women from maroon communities and from the general population of Alagoas State, Brazil

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: This study investigated the body composition and prevalence of hypertension in maroon women from the State of Alagoas and compared these variables with those of non-maroon women from the same state. METHODS: The data were collected from two cross-sectional surveys done in 2005 and 2008. The first study included a representative sample of mothers of children aged 0 to 5 years from the State of Alagoas, and the second study included all women aged 18 to 60 years living in maroon communities (n=39) in the same state. Data were collected during home interviews. The prevalence ratio and respective 95% confidence interval given by the Poisson regression with robust adjustment of variance was used as the measure of association. RESULTS: The study assessed 1,631 maroon women and 1,098 non-maroon mothers. Maroon women had lower education level, more children, higher prevalence of hypertension and stunting, and higher age at menarche, body mass index, waist circumference, waist-to-height ratio, and waist-to-hip ratio. After adjustment for age, the following prevalences remained higher in maroon women: hypertension (PR=1.81; 95%CI: 1.49; 2.21), WC >80cm (PR=1.23 95%CI: 1.11; 1.37), WHtR >0.5 (PR=1.11; 95%CI: 1.02; 1.21), and WHR >0.85 (PR=1.64; 95%CI: 1.43; 1.88). CONCLUSION: Maroon women belong to lower socioeconomic classes than non-maroon women and are at greater risk of abdominal obesity and hypertension, characteristics that make them especially vulnerable to the morbidity and mortality caused by cardiovascular diseases, justifying the preferential implementation of measures of care.