Blood pressure lab

Q #1 :State a problem about the relationship of age and gender to blood pressure.

A #1: One problem is that everyone is different, and it may not be sufficient enough to just compare age and gender to blood pressure.


Q #2 :Use your knowledge about the heart and the circulatory system to make a hypothesis about how the average blood pressure for a group of people would be affected by manipulating the age and gender of the group members.

A #2 : First of all the heart is usually stronger in more active adults. Being active usually occurs more in young adults, because they have more time and energy to do activities. This would then make the age of an adult important because in healthy adults, the younger you are, the better your blood pressure will be. When it comes to gender, males may tend to be more active, especially in competitive sports as young adults. On the other hand, females may eat healthier, and activity or health can bring a better blood pressure.

Q # 3: How will you use the investigation screen to test your hypothesis? What steps will you follow? What data will you record?

A # 3 : By using the investigation screen I can test my hypothesis, that women will have a better blood pressure than men based on healthier eating habits. I will first compare the women, and then change the screen to the men, and record their systolic and diastolic blood pressures.

Table:

Age Male systolic Male diastolic Female systolic Female diastolic
11-17 118 77 117 77
18-24 130 81 117 75
25-34 131 81 117 77
35-44 129 81 122 78
45-54 134 85 127 76


Q #4: Analyze the result of your experiment. Explain any patterns you observed.

A # 4: Just as I hypothesized, women had a lower blood pressure on average than men. The pattern in the male diastolic pressure stayed about the same from age 18-44. The pattern in female systolic stayed the same from age 11-34.

Q #5 : Did the result of your experiment support your hypothesis? Why or why not? Based on your experiment what conclusion can you draw about the relationship of age and gender to group blood pressure averages?

A #5 : Yes, my hypothesis that females on average would have lower blood pressures than males, and that as females age they would have lower blood pressures was supported in this experiment. Based on this experiment we could assume that young females will, on average, have a lower blood pressure than young males, and older females, on average, will have a lower blood pressure than older males.

Q # 6 : During the course of your experiment, did you obtain any blood pressure reading that were outside of the normal range for the group being tested? What did you notice on the medical charts for these individuals that might explain their high reading?

A # 6 : When there was an abstract blood pressure reading, most of the time the individual had either a family history of hypertension or a high-salt diet. These things could directly explain high blood pressure for some individuals. Others had lack or exercise and alcohol consumption, but they didn't affect the scores quite as much as a history of hypertension.

Q # 7 : List risk factors associated with the hypertension. Based on your observation, which risk factor do you think is most closely associated with hypertension?

A # 7 : Some of the risk factors for hypertension are a high-salt diet, lack or exercise, and alcohol consumption. All these things can lead to hypertension. I think that a high-salt diet is probably one the most closely associated with hypertension.

Q # 8 : What effect might obesity have on blood pressure? Does obesity alone cause a person to be at risk for high blood pressure? What other factors, in combination with obesity, might increase a person's risk for high blood pressure?

A #8: Obesity can have a huge effect on blood pressure. First of all, a person's heart who is obese is working twice as hard to circulate blood throughout their system. This alone can cause a person to be at a high risk for high blood pressure. Because obesity causes a string of others diseases and problems such as cardiovascular disease, any of these problems due to obesity can make a person's high blood pressure risk increase.