Blood Pressure Lab Follow-Up

What factors are known to cause increases in blood pressure?

-The factors that are known for increases in blood pressure are hypertension, a high-salt diet, a lack of exercise and alcohol consumption.

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.

-The average blood pressure for a group of people would be higher for people who are older. Also, men will generally have a higher average blood pressure than women.

What sorts of problems might a person develop who has chronic hypertension?

-Someone who has chronic hypertension can develop coronary artery disease, have an aneurysm, heart or kidney failure, and possibly a stroke.

Analyze the result of your experiment. Explain any patterns you observed.

-My experiment showed that younger kids and adults generally had a better blood pressure and were less likely to consume alcohol regularly. The older people get, the more likely their blood pressure will be bad due to lack of exercise.


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?

-My experiment did match my hypothesis because it showed that older people in general got a higher blood pressure. The conclusions that I can draw about the relationship of age and gender to group blood pressure averages is that older men tend to get either blood pressure is then women in general.


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?

-There were incidents where a teenager would show high blood pressure due to alcohol consumption. There were also times when I would pull up a roomful of around 50-year-old males, and all of them would have healthy blood pressure levels.


List risk factors associated with the hypertension. Based on your observation, which risk factor do you think is most closely associated with hypertension?

-Risk factors associated with hypertension are too much salt in the diet, too much alcohol consumption, and not enough exercise leading to obesity. Based on my observations the risk factors that most closely associates with hypertension would most likely be lack of proper exercise.


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?

-Obesity can have an effect on blood pressure due to the amount of fatty cells in one's body. Obesity alone can cause a small percentage of high blood pressure. Some other factors that can contribute to persons risk for high blood pressure include too much salt and not enough exercise.