Eating meals away from home have been shown to be associated with higher caloric intake, higher saturated fat intake and higher salt intake. These eating patterns are thought to cause high blood pressure.
Professor Tazeen Jafar from the Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School Singapore (Duke-NUS) designed and supervised a study to find behaviours associated with hypertension in a young adult population in Southeast Asia.
Her team, including Duke-NUS medical student Dominique Seow, surveyed 501 university-going young adults aged 18 to 40 years in Singapore.
Using statistical analysis, the team found that pre-hypertension, or slightly elevated blood pressure, was found in 27.4 per cent of the total population, and 38 per cent ate more than 12 meals away from home per week; while the gender breakdown showed that pre-hypertension was more prevalent in men (49 per cent) than in women (9 per cent).
Those who had pre-hypertension or hypertension were more likely to eat more meals away from home per week, have a higher mean body mass index, have lower mean physical activity levels, and be current smokers.
"While there have been studies conducted in the United States and Japan to find behaviours associated with hypertension, very few have surveyed a Southeast Asian population," said Jafar.
"Our research plugs that gap and highlights lifestyle factors associated with pre-hypertension and hypertension that are potentially modifiable, and would be applicable to young adults globally, especially those of Asian descent," Jafar said.
The study was published in the American Journal of Hypertension.