The Determination of Blood Pressure, Anger Expression and Body Mass Index in Adolescents in Turkey: A Pilot Study

Abstract

This study was planned to determine whether there is a correlation between blood pressure, anger expression and body mass index of 16-18 year-old-adolescents. A descriptive-correlation design was used in this study. The study population comprised 276 students from 4 public high school. A questionnaire form and Anger Expression Inventory were used, and measures of systolic and diastolic blood pressure, height and weight measures were noted to the questionnaire form. The systolic blood pressure of 3.3% of the adolescents and the diastolic blood pressure of 4.7% of the adolescents was found hypertensive. Anger-in score was 15.42 +/- 3.78; anger-out score was 17.70 +/- 4.55 and anger-control score was 19.39 +/- 4.53. Body mass index of 67.8% of the adolescents was found within the normal range and 7. 6% of students were obese. A positive correlation was found between anger-control and systolic blood pressure (r=0.13; p<0.05), body mass index and systolic blood pressure (r=0.24; p<0.01), body mass index and diastolic blood pressure (r=0.16; p<0.01) and anger-in and body mass index (r=0.17; p<0.01) of adolescents. As a conclusion, this study provided findings related to the importance of determination of blood pressure, anger expression and body mass index in school health studies.