Health Behaviors Associated with Hypertension

The purpose of this study was to understand the status of health behaviors and the association of these behaviors with hypertensive elder aged 65-74 in Taiwan. Data for this study were from the 2005 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS). Health behaviors included BMI, lifestyle factors (alcohol drinking, smoking and physical activity) and dietary factors (snacks intake, sweetened beverages intake, and coffee intake). The Chi-square test was employed to examine the differences of health behavior distributions between men and women. The principal component and multiple logistic regression analysis were performed to determine the association of health behaviors with hypertension. Results showed that men have a higher percentage than women on current alcohol drinking and smoking experience. For men, current alcohol drinking was associated with age groups. Smoking experience was associated with age and BMI groups. With respect to the dietary variables, the percentage of the elder having sweetened beverages or coffee more than once per week was very low (10-15%). BMI, age, and male with smoking experience were risk factors of hypertension. The influence of BMI on hypertension was greater than other factors. Intervention program for hypertensive elders should target the overweight and obese group.