Prevalance Study of Overweight/Obesity and Hypertension Among Rural Adults.

ABSTRACT

The present study was conducted to find out the magnitude of overweight, obesity and hypertension among rural adults of Jammu and whether there exists an association of overweight/obesity with age, sex, physical activity & hypertension. Adults > 30 years with sample size 2216 were studied. Prevalence of obesity was 2.21% with females 3.35% males 1.02%. Prevalence of overweight was 9.70% with females 11.63% males 7.68%. A strong association between obesity/overweight and gender was found (p value <.000004). An increase in prevalence of obese & Overweight persons with age upto 59yrs. & 49yrs. respectively in both the sexes, declining thereafter; but this association with age was not statistically significant.Prevalence of hypertension was13% ; females 14.71% males 11.19% showing a strong association between gender and hypertension (p value <.02). An increase in prevalence of hypertension with age(from 30-39yrs. to >/=?60yrs) from 6.67% to 37.78% in females (p value <.0001) & 4.5% to 18.69% in males (p value <.00001), showing a strong association between hypertension and age in both the sexes. Proportion of obese & overweight persons was higher in sedentary workers when compared with that in moderate and heavy workers, results being statistically significant (p value <.01). An increasing proportion of hypertensives from 10.91% to 29.30% to 48.98% respectively among persons with “normal BMI” to “Overweight” to “Obese” was found showing highly significant association between BMI and Hypertension (p value <.000001).