CAMINHOS PARA O ENVELHECIMENTO SAUDÁVEL: RELAÇÃO ENTRE HIPERTENSÃO ARTERIAL SISTÊMICA E PRINCIPAIS FATORES DE RISCOS MODIFICÁVEIS

Introduction: Brazil is experiencing an aging process and among the most common diseases among the elderly are chronic non-transmissible diseases, which have slow development and deleterious effects in the long term, including systemic arterial hypertension, which presents its multifactorial character as a peculiarity. Objective: To evaluate the relationship between systemic arterial hypertension and its main modifiable risk factors. Methodology: This is a cross-sectional study of non-probabilistic sampling, the survey was carried out with the elderly of the Senior Citizens in Action Program at the Federal University of Piaui, from August to December 2015. Elderly, regardless of gender, participated in the collection. enrolled in the program in question. Those with cognitive impairment were excluded. Each participant was assessed using a socioeconomic and physical form; and physical assessment of waist circumference. The data were analyzed using the Statistical Product and Service Solutions software version 20.0. The study was approved by the Research Ethics Committee of the Federal University of Piaui. Results: This study included 99 elderly people, 87.9% of whom were female. The higher prevalence of females may be related to the feminization process of old age, which is characterized by the higher life expectancy of women. As for physical activity, only 15.2% of the elderly were considered regular physical activity practitioners, with a sedentary lifestyle being an important risk factor for chronic non-communicable diseases. When assessing the health situation, it was observed that 50.5% of those surveyed had systemic arterial hypertension and a significant correlation with high waist circumference values ​​(p = 0.03). Conclusions: Life habits and health situation showed that a reduced number of elderly people are active; and the significant relationship between waist circumference and the diagnosis of systemic arterial hypertension show the importance of acting on the various variables that make up health.