Abstract P2059: American Medical Students Have a Higher Prevalence of Stage 2 Hypertension Than the General Public: A Cross Sectional Study

Abstract

Relevance: Per the National Center for Health Statistics, 7.5% of U.S. adults between 18-39 years of age have stage 2 hypertension (HTN) under 2017 ACC/AHA guidelines. Research on HTN involving American medical students is lacking. This is one of the earliest known studies to survey blood pressures and associated risk factors of American medical students. Objective(s): The aim of this study is to determine the prevalence of HTN in first and second year medical students and identify risk factors that could be specific to all American medical students. Materials and Methods: Students from The DeBusk College of Osteopathic Medicine completed a survey that queried age, gender, tobacco use, alcohol consumption, diet, aerobic exercise, mental health, social support, and past medical history. Omron BP710N sphygmomanometers were used to measure blood pressures in the left arm. Waist circumference was measured around the umbilicus. HTN stages were defined under 2017 ACC/AHA guidelines. A multinomial regression analysis was performed in SPSS v22.0 with α = 0.05 to assess risk factors for the different stages of HTN. Results: Of the 213 students surveyed, 49.8% (106/213) were males and 49.3% (105/213) were females. Mean age of the sample was 25.8 years and the range was between 21-37 years. Under 2017 ACC/AHA guidelines 36.6% were (78/213) were normotensive; 16.4% (35/213) had prehypertension; 29.1% (62/213) had stage 1 HTN; and 17.8% (38/213) had stage 2 HTN. The regression model was significant, χ 2 (51) = 132.003, p < .001, explained 51.6% (Nagelkerke R 2 ) of the variance in HTN, and correctly classified 57.4% of cases. Males were 13.26 times more likely (p<0.001) to develop prehypertension than women. Increasing waist circumference by 1 inch was associated with an 11% increase in developing stage 2 HTN (p<0.001). Conclusion: Medical students have a ~2.4 times higher prevalence of stage 2 HTN than the public. Anxiety, exercise, and diet were insignificant factors according to the regression model while gender, waist circumference, and amount of sleep were significant. Additional studies should be conducted to assess the prevalence of stage 2 HTN and develop a better understanding of what risk factors may be causing the increased prevalence of stage 2 HTN in medical students.