Relationship between height and hypertension among women in India: Evidence from the fourth round of National Family Health Survey.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Hypertension (HTN) is associated with significant morbidity and mortality, especially among women. Literature suggests an association between height and hypertension. We did this study to ascertain an association between hypertension and height and explore their determinants among Indian women of reproductive age group (15-49 years).

METHODS

We did a secondary data analysis of the National Family Health Survey-4 (2015-16) and included 5,36,093 women between 20 and 49 years. Blood pressure and height were measured using the standard procedures. Weighted analysis was done to depict the association between the two variables.

RESULTS

Overall prevalence of HTN was 13.49%. We observed an inverse association between height and mean blood pressure of the women, and shorter women had a higher prevalence of HTN. The height of women was found to be associated with lower systolic blood pressure but not with diastolic blood pressure. Women's height depicted significant associations with age and other socio-economic and geographical parameters. Prevalence of HTN depicted a significant association with height and across other subgroups stratified by these parameters.

CONCLUSION

We observed a positive association between the systolic BP and the height of the female. Height is one of the most convenient forms of identifying target groups that should not be missed during screening women for NCDs, especially during pregnancy to prevent premature morbidity and mortality. We recommend disseminating this concept to our primary health care workers, who are also the point of first contact for early screening and halt the burden of disease.