Physical activity, sleep, cholesterol level and their relationship to blood pressure levels among members in the Tubuan Seventh-day Adventist church

Abstract

Lifestyle has become an important element in terms of health and well-being or the risk of developing a chronic disease. One of these disease conditions is hypertension, which is a real and huge epidemic around the world. Although generally it has an idiopathic etiology, it is aggravated by unhealthy lifestyle. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to analyze physical activity, sleep, cholesterol level, and their relationship to blood pressure levels among members in Tubuan Seventh-day Adventist Church. Using a correlational design, Tubuan Seventh-day Adventist members completed two questionnaires composed by the Brunel Lifestyle Physical Activity Questionnaire and the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, as well as measuring the blood pressure and taking a blood sample for measuring total cholesterol. Thirty-three out of 36 results were analyzed. The participants were between 30 and 60 years old with a higher number of women (57.6%). Men were practicing more intense physical activity than women. Ages 41-50 years were performing more physical activity compared to all groups. Single and married participants were practicing similar levels of physical activity. In terms of sleep, most of the participants had good sleep quality (66.7%) and over half (54.5%) of the participants were sleeping 7 hours or more. Women had good sleep quality and longer hours of sleep than men. Ages 30-50 years had good sleep quality and the category of 30-40 years had the longest hours of sleep per night than the others. Single and married groups were categorized as good sleepers and the single group had longer hours of sleep per night. Regarding total cholesterol, two thirds (66.7%) of the participants was in the category of desirable cholesterol. Men had a larger number of individuals in the category of desirable total cholesterol than women. Ages 30-40 years had the majority of its participants in the desirable category. The single group showed a slightly higher number of people in the desirable level than the married group. In relation to blood pressure, slightly half (51.5%) of the participants were prehypertensives. Women had a higher number of participants with normal blood pressure than men. The majority of those ages 30-40 had normal blood pressure in contrast to those at ages 41 and above that most were in the prehypertension group. Significant difference in blood pressure was found only between ages 30-40 years and 41-50 that had significantly better sleep quality than the 51 years and above group. The predictive model of blood pressure included only the variable of total sleep quality score. More research studies with a larger number of participants are recommended as well as longitudinal and experimental studies. Finally, it would be very crucial to include other health determinants in future research studies.