The Journal of

Introduction: Regular physical activity is one of the main factors in maintaining and improving health throughout life. International studies have shown that regular exercise can increase life expectancy and reduce morbidity and mortality from chronic diseases. This study was conducted to determine the amount of physical activity in people with high blood pressure and comparing them with healthy people.

Methods: The present study was a case-control study on 160 people (80 patients with hypertension (case group) and 80 healthy individuals (control group)). People with normal blood pressure were in the case group and the control group (systolic 140 mmHg or above and diastolic 90 mmHg or above) were in the case group. Data were collected using a questionnaire with the simple random sampling. The first part of questionnaire included background characteristics and socio-economic status; the second part of the questionnaire measured physical activity level using international physical activity questionnaire (IPAQ). The statistical analyses included descriptive statistics, the Mann–Whitney test, Chi-square test, and logistic regression analysis using SPSS/16.

• Assessment of physical activity in case and control groups showed that 13.8% of cases and 27.5% of controls had physical activity in the last week; this difference was statistically significant. Based on the results, the risk of hypertension in people without physical activity was 37.2 times more than the people who had physical activity in the last week. The results of logistic regression showed that physical activity, education level and income were effective factors on hypertension. The results showed that physical activity with moderate and severe levels have a protective effect against hypertension. Also, people with less income and less education had a greater chance of hypertension than others.
• The results indicated physical activity reduces the risk of hypertension. These findings emphasize the importance of improving the interventionist activities to improve the people's life style.