Read 1

Haley Read
Ms. Dionne
IB 2 Biology 4A
1 January 2016
What is the effect of aerobic exercise on blood pressure?
Data Collection and Processing
Raw Data:
Hours of aerobic exercise and systolic blood pressure from 46 individuals.
Ave
Aerobic
Exercise/
week
(hours +/0.5 hrs)
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
1
1
1
1
1
2
2
2
2
2
2
Ave

Systolic
Blood
Pressur
e
(mmHg
+/- 0.5
mmHg)
112
117
135
110
105
115
110
120
110
110
135
120
100
110
120
125
120
122
110
130
95
130
Systolic

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Aerobic
Exercise/
week
(hours +/0.5 hrs)
2
3
3
3
3
3.5
3.5
4
4
4
4
4
5
5
5
6
7
7
8
10
10
10
12
12
18

Blood
Pressur
e
(mmHg
+/- 0.5
mmHg)
130
120
125
120
118
110
110
105
115
110
132
115
100
120
110
110
122
124
110
95
130
115
125
100
110

Qualitative data:
Peoples faces were getting red from trials of attempting to find someones blood pressure. This
also caused people to have stress.
Processed Data:

Average systolic blood pressure for different hours of aerobic exercise

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Ave
Aerobic
Exercise/w
eek (hours
+/- 0.5 hrs)
0
1
2
3
3.5
4
5
6
7
8
10
12
18

Average
Systolic
Blood
Pressure
(mmHg
+/- 0.5
mmHg)
116
115
120
121
110
115
110
110
123
110
113
113
110

Equation used:

Example: The raw data from 5 hours of aerobic exercise is used.

Blood pressures: 110, 120, 100
110 + 120 + 100 = 330
330/3 = 110 mmHg
The averages were then graphed.

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What is the effect of aerobic exercise on blood pressure?

125
120
115

Systolic blood pressure (mmHg +/- 0.5 mmHg)

110
105
100

10

15

20

Hours of Aerobic Exercise/week (hrs +/- 0.5 hrs)

In order to see if hours of exercise affected systolic blood pressure, a line of best fit was added to
the graph. The correlation coefficient was then found which turned out to be -0.391. This table
below was used to examine the results.

The correlation coefficient was calculated on a calculator but the equation below was used.

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Conclusion and Evaluation
Conclusion:
What is the effect of aerobic exercise on blood pressure? From looking at the systolic blood
pressures initially on the graph, it looks like there is not a very good correlation. To prove this,
the correlation coefficient was calculated. The coefficient was -0.391. This number is negative
and half way between -0.5 and 0 which means there is a very weak correlation between hours of
exercise and systolic blood pressure. According to Blood Pressure UK, exercise does help to
lower and better maintain blood pressure. Although it is a weak correlation, the graph above does
show that more hours of aerobic exercise does seem to lower systolic blood pressure.

Evaluation:
Within this lab, there were many weaknesses. One weakness occurred because when the blood
pressure was taken, it was the last hour of the day before Christmas break. This could have
caused people to become excited and effect their blood pressure. An improvement could be to
take the blood pressure at a time when students are more calm and relaxed. Another limitation is
the limited size or variation of the different hours of aerobic exercise. Out of the 46 blood
pressures taken, only nine of those people exercised more than six hours a week. This creates an
unrepresentative calculation as most of the people did not exercise extensively every week so
only a few individuals represent the more hours spent doing exercise. This limits the data
because it is only based off of one or two people. In order to fix this, more people can have their
blood pressure and number of exercise a week taken in order to create a wider variety of people
and a larger representation for the numbers of exercise over six hours. One more limitation
includes the fact that only the systolic blood pressure was looked at. This is only a half of the

Read 6
total blood pressure which is not a complete representation. In order to improve this, the same
tests can be run with the same people but with the diastolic blood pressure. That would be a
possible way to further the investigation on the effect aerobic exercise has on blood pressure.

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Work Cited
"Being Active." Blood Pressure : Exercise & Activity Lower Blood Pressure. Blood Pressure
Association, n.d. Web. 08 Jan. 2016.