Wealth is related to blood pressure and higher income means higher chances of developing blood pressure, according to a new study.
The study was presented at the 84th Annual Scientific Meeting of the Japanese Circulation Society (JCS 2020). Presenting the research, author of the study Dr Shingo Yanagiya (Hokkaido University Graduate School of Medicine, Sapporo, Japan) said that men with higher income are at risk and they need to improve their lifestyles to prevent hypertension.
The study said that men having higher income tend to have stress, unhealthy eating practises and even less exercise.
It is estimated that more than a billion people have high blood pressure across the globe. Among them, about 30 to 45 per cent of adults are affected.
Noting that high blood pressure was one of the leading causes of death worldwide, Dr. Yanagiya said that they looked into the socio-economic aspect of the high blood pressure. In the study, they examined the relationship between household income and high blood pressure in Japanese employees. A total of 4,314 people (3,153 men and 1,161 women) with daytime jobs and normal blood pressure were enrolled in 2012 from 12 workplaces. The people were divided into four groups with respect to their annual income. The groups were people having less than 5 million Japanese yen annual income, 5 to 7.9 million, 8 to 9.9 million, and 10 million or more yen per year. They researched for about two-year period.
The researchers found that men belonging to the higher income group were nearly twice as likely to develop high blood pressure when compared to men in the lower income group. It was seen that men in the 5 to 7.9 million and 8 to 9.9 million groups had a 50 per cent higher risk to men with the lowest incomes. It was seen the findings were consistent regardless of age. They were independent of baseline blood pressure, occupation, number of family members, smoking and worksite.
The researchers did not find any direct link between income and blood pressure in women.
However, it was seen that women having a higher household income had a lower risk of developing high blood pressure.
