Follow the virtual lab procedure, and answer the questions below. Answer in complete sentences. Please leave spaces between questions and your answers.
- What factors are known to cause increases in blood pressure?
The habits of an unhealthy lifestyle are mostly congruent to the factors raising blood pressure, such as inactivity, malnutrition, and stress.
- Use your knowledge about the heart and the circulatory system to make a hypothesis about how the average blood pressure for a group of people would be affected by manipulating the age and gender of the group members.
If a high(er) age range is selected for testing, then their average blood pressure will be high(er).
- What sorts of problems might a person develop who has chronic hypertension?
They could have increased risk of heart diseases, kidney failure, and/or cardiovascular problems, such as a stroke.
- Analyze the results of your experiment. Explain any patterns you observed.
After the analyzing the results of the lab, for people between the ages of 18 & 54, Females had, on average, a lower blood pressure than males in their identical respective age group. This could be attributed to the double standards of society, where men are usually the ones working physically harder, and thus have a higher blood pressure because of the physical taxation. Secondly, I noticed that the more the survey boxes were checked “yes,” the higher the blood pressure of the patient would be. This is most likely due to the link of all of the questions in the survey to be factors in increasing heart pressure. Third, the older the age group was, the higher the average blood pressure would be. This is probably due to the continual process of atherosclerosis inside of our arteries, which lessens the space blood can flow through, and thus increases pressure. Lastly, I noticed a direct relationship of BMI (body mass index) value to blood pressure. A possible cause of this might, again, be due to atherosclerosis, as people with a high BMI usually have more fat.
- Did the result of your experiment support your hypothesis? Why or why not? Based on your experiment what conclusion can you draw about the relationship of age and gender to group blood pressure averages?
Yes, it supported my hypothesis because the higher the age group I tested, the more people had hypertension. Also, the females of the group consistently had a lower blood pressure than the males, minus the 11-17 age group.
- During the course of your experiment, did you obtain any blood pressure reading that were outside of the normal range for the group being tested? What did you notice on the medical charts for these individuals that might explain their high reading?
As, I mentioned before, the questions on the survey seemed to directly tie into the subject's blood pressure, and all of the topics: genetics (family history), a diet high in sodium, a lack of exercise, and whether the subject consumed alcohol were met with an elevated blood pressure when the subject answered positively.
- List risk factors associated with the hypertension. Based on your observation, which risk factor do you think is most closely associated with hypertension?
Hypertension is caused by a variety of factors, some being: High BMI, alcohol consumption, old age, a high-sodium diet, a lack of exercise, and a genetic history of high blood pressure. The factor most closely related to being the hypertension source would probably be a family genetic history of high blood pressure, as more than half- actually around 70-80%- of the people with the highest blood pressure per age group had little in common other than the fact that they all admitted to having a family history of hypertension.
- What effect might obesity have on blood pressure? Does obesity alone cause a person to be at risk for high blood pressure? What other factors, in combination with obesity, might increase a person's risk for high blood pressure?
What I noticed during the data analysis, was that every person that had a BMI of less than 30 did not have hypertension. There were people with a BMI of less than 30 that did have hypertension though, so it can’t be a surefire cause. Virtually all of the other factors mentioned in Q7 can influence your blood pressure, and thus whether you are considered to have hypertension or not.
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