Associations between dietary patterns and blood pressure in a sample of Australian adults

Nutrition Journal

Table 1 Participant characteristics (n = 251)

	All	Females (n = 139)	Males (n = 112)
Age (years)	55.1 (9.1)	58.0 (6.4)***	51.5 (0.6)
Height (cm)	168.3 (9.1)	162.7 (6.9)***	175.3 (6.0)
Weight (kg)	83.8 (13.7)	78.2 (12.3)***	90.8 (12.0)
BMI (kg/m²)	29.5 (3.9)	29.5 (4.4)	29.5 (3.1)
Home blood pressure (mmHg)
Systolic	128.8 (11.9)	127. 3 (11.7)*	130.6 (12.0)
Diastolic	81.3 (8.4)	80.3 (8.4)	82.4 (8.3)
% On anti-hypertensive medication ^	38.6	40.3	36.6
% physically active	25.4	23.0	28.6
% current smoker	3.6	2.9	4.5
Education level – % high school or lower	33.9	46.8	17.9
Energy intake (kJ/day)	9177.8 (3109.3)	7573.4 (2027.0)***	11,168.8 (3072.8)
Sodium intake (mmol/day)	119.1 (49.4)	100.0 (37.5)***	142.7 (52.2)
Energy adjusted sodium intake (mmol/MJ)	13.1 (3.9)	13.4 (4.2)	12.9 (3.5)
Potassium intake (mmol/day)	91.3 (27.4)	80.0 (22.5)***	105.3 (26.4)
Energy adjusted potassium intake (mmol/MJ)	10.4 (2.8)	10.9 (3.0)***	9.7 (2.3)
Sodium: Potassium molar ratio	1.36 (0.54)	1.32 (0.53)	1.40 (0.55)

All data are mean (SD) or percentage of participants; Abbreviations: BMI, body mass index.
Difference between males and females *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001.
^ 39% of the sample on anti-hypertensive medication is consistent with the incidence of hypertension in the adult community (~ 34% of Australians aged 18 and over have high blood pressure, based on measured data from the 2017–18 Australian Bureau of Statistics National Health Survey, and this increases with age). Participants also needed to have been on the AHT medication for enough time (screening question) that their blood pressure was stable.

ISSN: 1475-2891