Research
Mixed
Systolic Blood Pressure (SBP) has decoupled from Body Mass Index (BMI) at the population level in high-income countries, whereas it remains positively correlated in low- and middle-income countries.
In wealthy nations, high blood pressure can be managed with medication even if BMI is high. However, in developing nations, high BMI is still a strong predictor of high blood pressure. Focus on weight management and salt reduction, especially if you live in a lower-income region.
GoodQualifiesHIGH confidence
The SBP-BMI association disappeared in both men and women over time... In contrast to blood pressure, which has become increasingly disassociated from BMI at the population level...
Why this rating
Robust ecological analysis showing a clear divergence in trends.
Source
The Global Cardiovascular Risk Transition
Goodarz Danaei et al. · Circulation · 2013
DOI 10.1161/circulationaha.113.001470
cross_sectionalCited 249×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
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