BACKGROUND: High blood pressure is considered as one of the main problems in developed and developing countries. Undoubtedly, controlling blood pressure is a significant factor in the declining of case of fatal non-contagious diseases, and plays an important role in reducing the rate of mortality caused by these diseases. The purpose of this research is to investigate blood pressure prevalence and its effective factors in the population older than 30 years of age in Shaft, Iran, around 2007-2008. METHODS: This is a descriptive, cross-sectional, and applied research, which is dedicated to surveying the relationship between family history of blood pressure, diabetes, and fatness with high blood pressure prevalence in 27,057 people older than 30 years of age. Data was collected via a questionnaire along with observation, and was analyzed by SPSS software. RESULTS: Results showed that from the 27,057 screened people, 47.4% were male and 52.6% female. 49.6% of screened people were at risk of high blood pressure 56% of at risk individuals had BMI factor of more than 25 and 13.6% had family history of diabetes. From the total population under survey, 1.9% were suspected of having high blood pressure, 0.47% of whom were diagnosed by physicians for the first time. The highest frequency of prevalence (including old and new sick people) was observed in 22% of people of 70 years of age and older that implied the risk of high blood pressure will be raised by increasing of age. The prevalence of high blood pressure in women (12.6%) was higher than men (4.58%). CONCLUSION: Overweight people, people that had family history of blood pressure and diabetes, and smokers were more at risk of high blood pressure compared to healthy people. Therefore, paying sufficient attention to risky cardiovascular factors in the treatment of high blood pressure, changing the patients' lifestyle, amending their diet and preventing them from immobility can be some of the effective ways of controlling risky factors.
