Medical Investigation of the Tribetan Immigrants Living in Suburban District of Nepal

The purpose of the the present study(the Third Japan-Nepal Health Scientific Cooperative Study) was to investigate the health status of the Tibetan immigrants living in a Tibeta Refugee Camp located in the suburban district of Kathmandu in Nepal. They immigrated from Tibet more than 30 years ago, and have been habitually taking Tibetan tea which was made from rock salt, butter and tea as yet. A total of 548 (242 men and 306 women), aged from 20 to 85, participated in the study. Half of the men and two third of the women worked as weavers at a factory of Tibetan carpet products. Blood pressure of the men was 125+-21/78+-16 mmHg and of the women 118+-19/72+-13 mmHg, respectively, increased with age statistically. The incidences of borderline hypertension and hypertension in the Tibetans were 12.8% and 15.3% for men and 7.5% and 6.9% for women, respectively, not so high as compared with those in the Japanese. Average salt intake was approximately 12-13 g/day, which was slightly higher than that of the Japanese. Although the Tibetan immigrants consumed relatively high amounts of salt, the association between salt intake and the blood pressure was not clearly detected by the partial correlation coefficients, suggesting that the blood pressure may be influenced by age, fat-free mass and the nutrient consumption rather than by the high salt intake in the Tibetan immigrants investigated