Lab One

Introduction: Welcome to the first lab of this unit. In this lab, I gathered groups of people in certain age groups, took their pressures, found the means of each group, and graphed them. I formed a hypothesis and made notations about those with possible hypertension. Below are the results.

Lab Questions

Journal of Lab One, Unit Two

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

-- A problem about the relationship of age and gender to blood pressure is that not enough experiments have been conducted to state information about it as fact. It is generally thought that young men and women do not suffer high blood pressure, yet older men and women are more likely to experience it.

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.

-- Using men only, I hypothesize that the older the group of men, the higher the blood pressure will become. Using women, I would say the same effects would happen.

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

-- I will select all men at a young, adolescent, and adult age then use women of the same age groups. I will take the blood pressure of the young a designated amount of time then find the mean. This will continue for each group until an average blood pressure for each gender and age group is found. I will record every blood pressure measurement and the final mean value. The table only allows me to find the mean, so I will record the initial measurements on a separate sheet of paper.

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

-- The results of my experiment were as such. The older each group became, the greater the difference between genders. For example, the males age 18-24 had a blood pressure of 127/79 and the women of the same age group had 113/17. Specifically with men, the average systolic and diastolic pressures increased with age. Women, on the other hand, maintained almost a constant until reaching the age group of 45-54. The oldest age group spiked average systolic pressure by 21% and diastolic pressure by 20%. I also noticed the men, as they grew older, showed signs of hypertension, whereas the women were usually within the normal range.

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?

-- The result of the experiment did not support my hypothesis. As you recall, I hypothesized that men and women's blood pressure would increase as they became older. This was true in the case of men, but not so much for women. Granted, the oldest group of women did spike in their average, but was a consistent range of 110 -120 until they reached the age group of 45-54. My hypothesis stated each age group would increase, but this was not the case for women, only one two age groups increased.

Based on my experiment, I can draw the conclusion that women's blood pressure should remain around 117/74 for most of their adult life. Men's average blood pressure should increase with age about 20% every six years.

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?

-- During the experiment, there were times when blood pressure readings were outside the normal range. In most cases, after reviewing the medical charts of the individuals with high readings, it was an issue of hypertension history in the family or a lack of exercise. Other bad habits in conjunction with lack of exercise, such as a high salt diet and/or alcohol consumption, with out hypertension history seemed to be a contributor to having high blood pressure.

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

-- Some risk factors associated with hypertension include: a high-salt diet, lack of exercise, history of hypertension in the family, and alcohol consumption.

Based on my observations, I believe that having a history of hypertension in the family is closely associated with hypertension; having a lack of exercise and poor diet come in a close second place, though.

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?

-- Obesity has quite the effect on blood pressure. First off, that may mean a person has a poor diet and exercise, which is associated with high blood pressure problems anyway. Secondly, having all of that extra fat on the body makes the heart work harder. Other factors, added to obesity, that may increase a person's risk include: having hypertension history in the family line, and alcohol consumption in unhealthy amounts.

Here is a picture of the graph created after all data about the average blood pressures was inputed. The top two lines are systolic numbers, the bottom line being for women and the top being for men. The bottom two lines are the average diastolic numbers, again the top line being for men and the bottom for women.

Here is the table used to help create the graph above. It is hard to see, but to the left is the different age groups. As you go across the columns, it says, "Male Systolic" "Male Diastolic" and the same for women across the board.

The next two pictures I wanted to put up to show that the men had were more susceptible to hypertension than the women in the test groups. Both groups are age 35-44, take not of the multiple red numbers compared to the women.































Conclusion: That concludes the lab write up for the blood pressure test. My hypothesis was somewhat correct, but I was disproved when it came to women's blood pressure. The men in my study tended to have hypertension, mostly coming from heredity or obesity. The next section will move onto blood.