The relationship between the intake of fruits, vegetables, and dairy products with hypertension: findings from the STEPS study

Table 1 Socio-demographic characteristics of the study population

Variables	Normal (12,657)	Elevated (3,670)	Stage I (6,554)	Stage II (6,497)	Total (29,378)	P-value
Gender, female, %	54.0	50.5	52.3	50.2	52.3	<0.001
Area, rural, %	28.0	32.9	28.2	32.4	29.6	<0.001
Marital status, single, %	12.5	15.8	17.2	15.8	14.7	<0.001
Occupation						<0.001
Employee Worker Self-employed housewife Other	7.9 5.6 21.6 45.1 19.9	7.8 7.1 26.9 40.4 17.9	8.5 6.8 24.1 42.4 18.2	9.1 6.3 26.4 40.1 18.1	8.3 6.2 23.9 42.8 18.9
Smoking, no, %	79.7	80.2	80.6	79.3	79.9	0.256
WI						<0.001
Poorest Poor Moderate Rich Richest	19.1 19.7 19.8 19.7 21.6	21.8 20.2 18.9 20.6 18.5	20.0 20.6 20.7 19.9 18.8	19.6 21.0 20.3 20.2 18.8	19.7 20.3 20.0 20.0 20.0
Age, years	47.4 ± 17.1	42.5 ± 15.3	41.6 ± 15.2	42.9 ± 15.3	44.5 ± 16.2	<0.001
BMI (kg/m²)	26.9 ± 5.2	26.1 ± 4.9	26.2 ± 4.9	26.3 ± 5.1	26.5 ± 5.1	<0.001
Physical activity, MET/min/week	360.0 (1680.0)	456.0 (2100.0)	420.0 (1840.0)	480.0 (2160.0)	400.0 (1904.0)	<0.001
Education, years	8.0 (9.0)	9.0 (7.0)	10.0 (7.0)	9.0 (7.0)	9.0 (7.0)	<0.001

BMI, body mass index; MET, metabolic equivalent of task; WI, wealth index; SBP, systolic blood pressure; DBP, diastolic blood pressure; BP, blood pressure
Values are mean ± SD for continuous and percentage for categorical variables
BP category: normal (SBP < 120 mmHg and DBP < 80 mmHg), elevated BP (SBP 120 to 129 mmHg or DBP 80 to 84 mmHg), stage I hypertension (SBP 130 to 139 mmHg or DBP 85 to 89 mmHg), and stage II hypertension (SBP ≥ 140 mmHg or DBP ≥ 90 mmHg)

ISSN: 2055-0928