Salt consumption, body fatness and blood pressure of the Gidra in lowland Papua

The Gidra population in lowland Papua New Guinea, having lived as a no‐salt culture, is now subjected to modernization. In 1981, salt consumption, body fatness and blood pressures were measured for people in four ecologically different villages. Daily salt consumption of individuals was estimated from the sodium level per unit weight of creatinine in the morning urine and the daily urinary excretion of creatinine (estimation from fat free mass). The estimated value significantly correlated (r=0.53) with actually measured value in 30 selected subjects. Estimated sodium consumption and the urinary sodium potassium ratio were generally lower in remote villages from the town, and the salt consumption levels were less than 5 g/day/person in all the villages. Body fatness, calculated from the two skinfold values, was variable with sex, age group and village, the most being in the females in a coastal village which was adjacent to the town. The age‐related increment of blood pressures was significant only in females; systolic blood pressure and pulse pressure were elevated in female elders. Conclusively, blood pressures were considered to be related, not to salt consumption, but to body fatness in the Gidra.

Key words:

• salt consumption
• body fatness
• blood pressures
• Gidra
• lowland Papua

Notes

Present address: Department of Public Health, Kumamoto University Medical School, Kumamoto 860, Japan