Arterial pressures in non-pregnant women of child-bearing age in Ile-Ife, Nigeria.

The range of arterial pressures in non-pregnant women between the ages of 15 and 44 years in Ile-Ife, Western Nigeria, has been determined from a randomly selected group of 626 women. The survey showed a low range of arterial pressures in the women. Blood pressures within the group showed a tendency to rise with age except in those who were aged 40 to 44 years, where the small numbers may have yielded the unexpected lower arterial pressure levels. Parity did not seem to have exerted any clear influence on the blood pressures of the subjects. The exception is in the age group 30 to 34 years where increasing parity was associated with a lower systolic blood pressure. The results of the survey suggested that essential hypertension and chronic renal disease were not likely to be significant factors in the high incidence of pre-eclampsia and eclampsia in the community.