CORRELATION OF BODY MASS INDEX WITH FREQUENCY OF HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE

Objective: To determine Correlation of Body Mass Index with frequency of Hypertension. Methodology: This cross sectional study was performed in urban areas of Peshawar. A total of 2548 participants, of either gender or age above 18years were randomly recruited from various occupational groups of Peshawar Heart Study (PHS) and data collected. Subjects were divided into obese and non-obese on the basis of BMI. Participants with BMI of 25 and above were taken as obese and those less than 25 were considered as non-obese. Systolic and diastolic blood pressures were defined on the basis of published guidelines. Pearson Rank Correlation (Y) was used to determine correlation between the variables. Results: Of the total study population, 1015(39.6%) were non-obese and 1533(60.4%) were obese. In non-obese group, 16.7% of individuals had systolic hypertension and 25.7% had diastolic hypertension. In obese group 36.3% had systolic hypertension and 51.1% had diastolic hypertension. Mean systolic BP in non-obese was 120.8 +/- 32.7 mmHg (80-220) while it was 130.7 +/- 38.2 mmHg (80-230) in obese subjects. Mean diastolic BP was 78.8 +/- 18.9 mmHg (50-130) in non-obese while it was 85.7 +/- 20.1 mmHg (50-140) in obese individuals. Pearson rank correlation was weakly positive, i-e; + 0.2. Conclusion: Systolic and diastolic hypertension has weak positive correlation with obesity.