Abstract
Lifestyle is an important factor for elderly people to live healthy and abundant lives. Although obesity is associated with lifestyle and is a factor in chronic diseases, there remain many questions regarding the association between obesity and blood pressure or metabolism of the elderly. This study was done to elucidate the association of obesity on blood pressure and metabolic factors in the elderly. Subjects were elderly persons in Hanazono Village, Japan.
We enrolled individuals aged over 40 years old who had undergone physical examinations in 2001. We also used a questionnaire to survey daily activity. We divided the subjects into two groups by BMI over 25 (obese) and under 25 (lean).
The results indicated that even in the normotensive blood pressure in the early morning, insulin resistance index HOMA, plasma leptin concentration and urinary microalbumin excretion in the obese were significantly higher than in the lean. This suggests that morning elevation of blood pressure, insulin resistance and leptin may interrelate with one another in the normotensive elderly obese subjects, and the possibility exists that they have renal diseases even if they don't present with the typical physical findings in the present study.
