Blood pressure, obesity and urine cation excretion in two populations of the Cook Islands.

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Abstract
As part of a physical anthropological and linguistic research in the Cook Islands, blood pressure levels, the degree of obesity, and urine cation excretion were measured in the residents of Rarotonga (the most westernized) and Mangaia (a less westernized island) in 1986. The rise of blood pressure with age was observed in both sexes in each island, with the mean systolic pressures of the oldest male group (155.8 vs. 137.3 mmHg) significantly higher, and those of older female groups (137.4 vs. 127.1 and 154.7 vs. 145.9 mmHg) relatively higher in Rarotonga than in Mangaia. The mean body mass index was much the same between the two islands, but mean skinfolds at triceps and subscapular sites were thicker in Rarotonga than in Mangaia in each sex and age group. The mean sodium to potassium excretion ratio fell with age (2.97 to 0.94 in males, 2.24 to 1.09 in females) in Rarotonga, and was consistently low (1.09 to 0.73) in Mangaia. Body mass index correlated with both systolic and diastolic pressures in each sex and island group but indeces of sodium excretion did not. Obesity was considered a more important risk factor for hypertension than sodium-intake in the surveyed population, and skinfolds, related to daily physical activity, probably associated with the difference in blood pressure levels observed between the two islands.