Introduction: The factors predisposing to the occurrence of cardiovascular event are mainly age, visceral obesity and metabolic syndrome. To our knowledge, there are no studies assessing both the nutritional status and diet of hypertensive patients in Poland.
Aim: Our aim is the assessment of the diet and nutritional status of patients with hypertension.
Material and methods: This study included 50 patients (K: 32, M: 18) with hypertension admitted to the Department of Internal Medicine at the Heliodor Święcicki Clinical Hospital in Poznan. Anthropometric measurements (waist and hip circumference), and body composition analysis were used to assess nutritional status. Additionally, we carried out the nutritional interview.
Results: We observed that among hypertensive patients, overweight occurred in 18% and obesity (definition based on BMI) in 48% of all patients. We found that visceral obesity (definition based on WHR) concerns 76% of patients. Moreover, we diagnosed a metabolic syndrome in 56% of patients. None of the patients treated the DASH diet, especially recommended for the treatment of hypertension. What's more, as many as 50% of hypertensive patients used salt for meals twice a day.
Conclusions: In patients with hypertension the frequent occurrence of obesity and metabolic syndrome may to a large extent result from the dietary support deviating from the rational diet. There is a need to educate patients with arterial hypertension in the field of non-pharmacological treatment methods, especially diet therapy.
Keywords: assessment of the diet; hypertension; nutritional status.
© National Institute of Public Health – National Institute of Hygiene.