Obesity: A major contributor to the development of Hypertension

Background: To define various categories of obese and nonobese subjects by BMI and physical conditions (underweight and overweight problems) and also to identify obesity-related hypertension in studied people. Methods: A population-based survey was conducted to gather data about obesity and hypertension and their associated risk factors (sociodemographic and biochemical) from 2,453 members of households of studied people. Blood samples were also collected from 114 willing participants for the biochemical analysis. Data were analyzed using ‘z’ and chi-square test at both 5% and 1% level of significance. Results: The studied people were grouped into many stages like underweight (BMI<18.5kg/m2), Normal (BMI=18.5-24.9 kg/m2), overweight (BMI=25.0-29.9 kg/m2) and Obese (BMI≥30 kg/m2). The prevalence of hypertension is very common in overweight and obese (BMI≥25.0) subjects. Both blood pressure (p<0.01) and hypertension (p<0.01) are found to be significantly increased with increasing BMI. Conclusions: The results of this study indicate that the obesity is responsible for the development of hypertension.