Effect of Physical Activities and Obesity on Ramadan Fasting among Hypertensive Patients

Introduction: The aim of this study was to find out the effect of physical activities and obesity among Ramadan fasting hypertensive patients of Karachi. Methods: 117 hypertensive patients were selected conveniently from the staff and faculty members of Dow University and other locations of Karachi. The inclusion criterion was the hypertensive patients with at least 20 days of fasting. The investigators visited the participants three times (last ten days of Shaban, Ramadan and Shawwal) for data collection. A questionnaire was completed before clinical examination. Blood pressure was measured 3 times in sitting position. 103 patients fasted at least 20 days. Results: The mean age of the 103 patients was 53.7±11.0 years. 11% participants could be considered as active using MET value of 600 and above. Mean sleeping hours decreased from 6.9 hours in Shaban to 6.3 hours in Ramadan. Mean systolic and diastolic blood pressures decreased from Shaban to Ramadan and bounced back in Shawwal for both ‘active’ and ‘inactive’ patients. However, it was statistically significant for ‘inactive’ patients only. Only mean SBP decreased significantly from Shaban to Ramadan for normal and overweight patients. Combined effect of physical activity, obesity, sleeping pattern and number of fasting days with repeated measure ANOVA showed that only number of fasting days was statistically significant. Conclusion: The study concludes that fasting does not incur any harm for the hypertensive patients. Nevertheless, it significantly reduces the systolic and diastolic blood pressures. Factors such as changes in physical activities, sleeping patterns, and weight reduction, except for the number of fasting days, do not affect the fasting hypertensive patients.

کلیدواژه ها:

Hypertensive patients ، Karachi ، Pakistan ، Ramadan fasting ، Systolic and diastolic blood ، pressure