Blood pressure indices, life-style factors and anthropometric correlates of casual blood glucose in a rural Nigerian community.

Background: Disordered blood glucose metabolism is associated with poor cardiovascular disease outcomes. Relationship between casual blood glucose (CBG) and blood pressure indices among rural dwellers in Nigeria has been less studied. Methods: We measured CBG, anthropometry, systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) pulse pressure (PP) and mean arterial pressure (MAP) and life-style cardiovascular risk factors. Results: The mean (standard deviation) of CBG was 6.2 (1.9) and values were similar in men and women. Age, SBP, DBP PP, MAP, body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference were positively correlated with CBG; r = 0.23, 0.30, 0.24, 0.28, 0.28, 0.24 and 0.22 respectively. In a multivariate analysis, only PP and BMI predicted CBG. A 5 mmHg increase in PP or a 2 kg/m 2 increase in BMI increased CBG by 0.15 or 0.18 mmol respectively. PP and BMI in combination explained 13% of the variation in CBG ( P Conclusion: PP and BMI are associated with CBG among rural dwellers in South-East Nigeria.