RESUMO
Background: According to the Oman World Health Survey in 2008, the prevalence of hypertension in Oman is about 40%. Hypertension is associated with old people, male gender, smoker and impaired glucose tolerance. The objective of the study was to find out the important predictors of hypertension in Oman.Methods: A cross sectional study in Omani adults more than 18 years of age was conducted. Blood pressure was measured and participants were classified as having hypertension. Height and weight was measured and body mass index was used to classify obesity by WHO guidelines. Multiple logistic regression was used to find the predictors of hypertension.Results: Increase in age and body mass index were found to be important covariates of hypertension. People in the age group of 30 to 50 years were at high risk of hypertension (OR 1.6, p<0.05); likelihood increased to three times in more than 50 years age group (p<0.01) in univariate analysis. Overweight had almost 2 times (p<0.05) and obese had five times (p<0.01) more likelihood of hypertension than normal weight people. People with less education had more likelihood of hypertension. Smokers (OR 2.9, p<0.01) and males (OR 1.5, p<0.05) were at a higher risk of hypertension than non-smokers and females in multivariate analysis. Percentage accuracy of classification was 67.4%.Conclusions: Age more than 50 years, male gender, BMI more than 30 and smoking were important predictors of hypertension in the study population