Abstract

Background: Obesity is an important risk factor for hypertension, diabetes mellitus, dyslipidemia, and other non- communicable diseases. India is passing through nutrition transition and prevalence of obesity and hypertension is on the rise. Objectives: The present study was carried out with the aim to determine the prevalence of hypertension and association with obesity in a rural population of Jharkhand. Material and Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out in a rural area of Ranchi district of Jharkhand. In total, 500 study subjects were included in the study after assessing their eligibility for the study. Cluster sampling was done. A pretested semi-structured questionnaire was used for data collection. Statistical analyses were carried out by SPSS software.
Results: Out of 500 study subjects, 99 (19.8%) were found to be hypertensive. Around one-third (171; 34.2%) of the subjects were overweight, and 21 (4.2%) subjects were obese. Central obesity was found to be higher among female subjects (54.9%) as compared to male subjects (16.3%) in the present study. The prevalence of hypertension was found to be higher among subjects having higher BMI. This association was found to be statistically significant ( p-value = < 0.001). Central obesity was found to be significantly associated with hypertension among male subjects statistically significant (p-value = < 0.001) whereas this association was not found among female subjects (p-value = 0.204). Conclusion: Obesity was found to be significantly associated with hypertension in the present study.