Research

Mixed

Higher body mass index (BMI) is strongly and linearly associated with increased prevalence and severity of hypertension, independent of age, gender, and other cardiovascular risk factors.

Maintaining a healthy body weight is one of the most effective ways to prevent high blood pressure. This study shows that as BMI increases, the risk of hypertension rises significantly, even after accounting for age and other health factors. For public health, using BMI as a simple screening tool is recommended to identify those at higher risk.

ModerateSupportsMEDIUM confidence
We found a gradient of increasing blood pressure with higher levels of BMI. The fact that this gradient is present even in the fully adjusted analyses suggests that BMI may cause a direct effect on blood pressure, independent of other clinical risk factors.
Francesco Landi et al. · Nutrients · 2018

Why this rating

Large sample size (n=7907) but cross-sectional design limits causal inference.

Source

Body Mass Index is Strongly Associated with Hypertension: Results from the Longevity Check-Up 7+ Study

Francesco Landi et al. · Nutrients · 2018

DOI 10.3390/nu10121976

cross_sectional · n=7907Cited 241×
Read the paper
DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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