Blood Pressure Lab

High blood pressure (hypertension) is a serious condition that can lead to coronary heart disease, heart failure, stroke, kidney failure, and other health problems.

Blood pressure is the force of blood pushing against the walls of the arteries as the heart pumps out blood. If this pressure rises and stays high over time, it can damage the body in many ways.

For this lab assignment, blood pressure readings were analyzed for both males and females broken down into the following age ranges: 11-17, 18-24, 25-34, and 45-54. The following table and graph represent the numerical data from the analysis. I could not get a full picture of the table showing the age ranges, but the are reflected along the y axis in the above listed descending order:



The graph represents the table data for the age ranges and gender. The orange line represents female diastolic as the orange key is not visible in the picture. The y axis represents the systolic and diastolic readings and the x axis represents the age ranges.

Journal information:

State a problem about the relationship of age and gender to blood pressure.

As age increases in both males and females, blood pressure increases. However, the increase in males in more substantial compared to females.

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 would increase in both the female and male groups if the age of the subjects increased. If the males were added to the female group respective to age, the average blood pressure for the female group would increase. The reverse would occur if females were added to male groups. Additionally, blending age groups per gender would fluctuate the blood pressure depending upon the age group added and amount of people.

How will you use the investigation screen to test your hypothesis? What steps will you follow? What data will you record?
I recorded the blood pressure data into the table and utilized and compared the information per gender and age group to test my hypothesis.

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

Blood pressure does increase with age for the male group. An anomaly in the female group is a lower blood pressure in the 18-24 range compared to the 11-17 range. Additionally, medical history and informati0on provided explain some of the different and higher results for outside the normal range readings.

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?

The results of the experiment supported my hypothesis for the most part. There is a disparity in the female age groups of 11-17 and 18-24 where the 18-24 is lower. Overall, as age increases, regardless of gender, blood pressure increases.

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?

Outside the normal range blood pressures were evident in both genders starting in the 25-34 groups, although males had a higher instance of that per group. Factors that affected the blood pressure for both groups were: family history of hypertension, high salt intake, lack of exercise, and alcohol consumption.

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

Factors that affected the blood pressure for both groups were: family history of hypertension, salt intake, lack of exercise, and alcohol consumption. Lack of exercise, high salt intake, and alcohol consumption were more prevalent than family history. However, combinations of the 4 resulted in higher readings overall.

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 is a factor in hypertension but obesity alone does not guarantee hypertension. However, an obese person may have other factors (such as the lack of exercise and poor eating habits) that assist in the hypertension.