CARDIOVASCULAR JOURNAL OF AFRICA • Vol 21, No 1, January/February 2010
20
AFRICA
Findings from this study suggest that it would be useful to
record ambient temperatures when doing blood pressure surveys,
and taking them into account during the analysis stage, such as
using a regression coefficient of temperature to standardise blood
pressures to a fixed ambient temperature, for example 25ºC. It
would also be important to take the seasonal variation of blood
pressure into account during routine clinical practice such as the
monitoring and management of patients who have high blood
pressure. The public health implications of this relationship
could be underestimated and therefore there is a need to conduct
more studies in sub-Saharan Africa to investigate these findings.
We are grateful to Dr PatrickAnsah of the Navrongo Health Research Centre,
as the study would not have been possible without him. We thank Rufina
Asuru for the immense assistance given during the course of the study, as
well as all field workers, their supervisor, the study participants and all those
who contributed to making the study possible.
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