Associação do consumo de sal e obesidade com a pressão arterial

Abstract

Currently, obesity is considered a pandemic involving high costs in the health sectors. It is estimated that, globally, almost 34% of the adult population is obese or overweight. Obesity has several impacts on the health of individuals, since it is often associated with Cardiovascular Diseases, such as hypertension with a higher mortality rate in obese people. Of these, it is estimated that nearly 80% are diagnosed with high blood pressure. It is known that excess salt intake, in the long term, is related to several cardiovascular diseases. Considering that there are still no studies that have verified the association of salt consumption in obese individuals with and without arterial hypertension in robust population samples, the present study identified whether salt consumption is higher in obese individuals and whether there is dependence between the higher salt intake and higher caloric intake and whether part of the increased salt intake in obese individuals depends on the concomitant existence of arterial hypertension. This is a described and analytical, cross-sectional study, using data collected at the baseline of the Longitudinal Study of Adult Health - ELSA-Brazil between August 2008 and December 2010, composed of 15,105 participants, from both the sexes. The results indicate that there is an additional effect of obesity on the increase in BP with higher salt consumption, especially in women. However, the involvement of salt consumption in obese individuals shows convincing results in hypertension, identifying a greater association and additive effect in females.