Lifestyle and gender influence on the relationship between hypertension and intraocular pressure amongst the South Nigerian population.

Abstract

Hypertension and increased intraocular pressure (IOP) have been considered to be detrimental to systemic and ocular health respectively. Untreated and prolonged increase in blood pressure (BP) has been linked to increase in IOP for some populations. Lifestyle factors such as cigarette smoking, alcohol intake, obesity, salt, fat, fruit and vegetable intake could have great influence on the relationship between hypertension and IOP. However, this has not been investigated. Aim: The aim of this study is to investigate the influence of gender and lifestyle factors on the relationship between hypertension and IOP amongst the South Nigerian population. Method: A total of 570 subjects between 20-70 years old were included in the study. Subjects were randomly selected from six approved eye hospitals within the South Nigerian region. The population was divided into two groups comprising of 285 normotensive and 285 hypertensive subjects. All subjects were presented with the information document. Only those with signed consent forms participated in the study. With each subjects, blood pressure, intraocular pressure, weight and height measurements were taken using the mercury sphygmomanometer, schiotz tonometer, measuring scale and measuring tape respectively. Thereafter, a lifestyle questionnaire about cigarette smoking, alcohol intake, obesity, salt, fat and fruit and vegetable intake were administered. Data was analyzed using the Statistical Packages for Social Sciences (Version 22), using Pearson correlation coefficient and Analysis of variance (ANOVA) Results: The percentage of male and female normotensive subjects were 33% (N=94) and 67% (N=191) respectively and served as control for the study. For the hypertensive subjects, 36.1% (N=103) were male and 63.9% (N=182) were female. The mean age was 42.31 ± 9.98 years old and 46.45 ± 10.23 years old for the normotensive and hypertensive subjects respectively. The mean IOP of the hypertensive male subjects was 21.22± 3.22 mmHg (RE) and 20.12 ± 2.62 mmHg (LE) and for the female subjects was 19.83 ± 3.75 mmHg (RE) and 18.98 ± 2.91 mmHg (LE). There was no correlation of lifestyle factors and gender on the relationship between HBP and IOP from the study. A correlation was however observed among the hypertensive subjects showing moderate correlation for SBP and DBP for IOP RE (0.375 and 0.297), respectively. A weak correlation was observed for SBP and DBP for IOP LE (0.241 and 0.204) respectively. The relationship between hypertension and IOP was statistically significant with p≤ 0.05. Conclusion: There was significant influence of gender on both hypertension and IOP for the RE and LE. Alcohol intake amongst all other lifestyle had influence on SBP, DBP and IOP RE and LE for hypertensive subjects.