A comparison of body fat and blood pressure in physical education and non-physical education female students of University of Guilan in Iran

The purpose of this study was to compare the body fat and blood pressure in physical education and non-physical education female students of University of Guilan in Iran. The target population consisted entirely of female students of University of Guilan. Among them 140 female’s athlete and 160 females non-athlete with mean age of 22.2±1.9 and 23.3±2.1years, height 168.6±7.3 and 163.4±4.2cm, weight 60.3±2.4and 68.3±6.36kg and body mass index 20.54±9.8 and 25.16±7.7kg/m2 respectively. Statistical tests of t-test and Pearson correlation coefficient were used to analyze the data. Non-physical education female students had a higher blood pressure (BP) than physical education ones. A low physical fit-ness level and high BMI were independently associated with a high BP and risk of having hypertension in non-education female. The results show that waist-hip ratio (WHR), BP (SBP and DBP) and relative fat had the significant differences among physical education females and non-physical education female students (p<0.05), with non-physical education female students higher than the physical education female students. In the study, a low physical activity was too important determent for prevalence of obesity, overweight, hypertension in non athlete females. Therefore, promotion in physical activity level, improving nutrition education program could be an effective way to decrease obesity, overweight and hypertension in non-physical education female students.