Abstract
Background: High blood pressure is the number one contributing factor to the global burden of non-communicable disease. Though genetic and environmental factors play an important role in the causation of blood pressure but the main influencing factor and an important emerging public health problem in developing countries like India is obesity for which waist circumference is the most important anthropometry. This study was carried out with objective to find out prevalence of Hypertension and to assess its association with waist circumference. Methods: A cross-sectional community-based study was carried out among 400 subjects of age group >18 years during March 2017 to August 2017. Multi stage random sampling method was used and Hypertension was classified as per the 2017 guideline (updated JNC 7). Cut-off points used to define the obesity were waist circumference >= 80 cm for women and >= 90 cm for men. Data compilation and its analysis was done using Microsoft Excel and IBM SPSS Version 20.0. Results: Prevalence of hypertension among study subjects was found to be, 63.7% (Stage 1=43.0% and Stage 2=20.7%) with females and males having prevalence of 62.0% (Stage 1=39.9% and Stage 2=22.1%) and 66.9% (Stage 1=48.5% and Stage 2=18.4%) respectively. Fifty percent subjects were having waist circumference >cut off value and among them 71.3% were female and 11.3% were males (chi 2=132.11, df=1, p<0.005) and the strength of association with female sex was strong (Cramer's V=0.575). Conclusions: This study demonstrated that waist circumference has a potential as a means of identifying risk factor for hypertension.