High blood pressure in adults with disabilities: influence of gender, body weight and health behaviors.
One in four adults with disabilities in Taiwan had hypertension, and the main drivers—age, obesity, and low fruit/veg intake—match later U.S. and European data.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Lin et al. (2012) asked 833 adults with disabilities in Taiwan about their health. They checked blood pressure, weight, age, and how often people ate fruits and vegetables.
The team wanted to know how many adults had high blood pressure and what raised the risk.
What they found
About one in four adults had hypertension. Older age, extra weight, and low produce intake were the strongest warning signs.
Gender mattered too, but less than those three factors.
How this fits with other research
de Leeuw et al. (2024) looked at U.S. Medicaid records and found heart disease in up to 75% of adults with IDD. Their 2024 data extend the 2012 Taiwan numbers, showing the problem is still big and spans countries.
Yamaki et al. (2011) saw the same link in U.S. teens: overweight youths with disabilities carried more chronic conditions. The Taiwan study moves that pattern into adulthood and singles out hypertension.
Day et al. (2021) in Ireland found 69% of older adults with ID were overweight or obese. The two surveys conceptually replicate each other—both show extra pounds stack onto chronic disease in disability groups, just on different continents.
Why it matters
If you serve adults with disabilities, treat obesity and diet as vital signs. Add a produce tally to your intake form and flag anyone with a high BMI for nurse blood-pressure checks. Small diet prompts now can prevent cardiac events later.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
The aims of this study were to explore the mean and distribution of systolic and diastolic blood pressure, and to examine the influence of gender, body weight and health behaviors on hypertension in adults with disabilities. We analyzed the 2010 annual community health examination chart of adults with disabilities in east Taiwan. The study samples included 833 adults with disabilities whose age 30 years and over participated in the analyses. The mean value of diastolic and systolic blood pressure (mmHg) of the study participants was 76.51 ± 12.65 (range = 40-155) and 127.39 ± 20.32 (range = 77-221). Fifteen percent and 23.4% of the participants have high diastolic (>/=90 mmHg) and systolic (>/= 140 mmHg) blood pressure. There were 27.4% of the participants who had hypertension, high diastolic or/and systolic blood pressure. Finally, we found that the factors of older age (OR = 2.45, 95% CI = 1.22-4.93), overweight or obese in BMI (OR = 6.72, 95% CI = 1.90-23.78; OR = 6.76, 95% CI = 1.84-24.84), waist circumference (OR = 1.64, 95% CI = 1.03-2.61) and vegetable/fruit intake (OR = 0.61, 95% CI = 0.39-0.94) were variables that could significantly predict the hypertension condition of the subjects after controlling factors of marital status, type and level of disability. To improve the healthcare for people who suffer with and prevention for hypertension, the study highlights the health authorities should pay much attention to blood pressure condition and their determinants for people with disabilities in the communities.
Research in developmental disabilities, 2012 · doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2012.03.027