OBESITY AND HYPERTENSION

Objectives: To assess the associations of obesity and hypertension in diabetics and non-diabetics. Patients and Methods:A total of 430 Saudi patients suffering from non-insulin-dependent (type 2) diabetes mellitus comprising of 205(48 %) males and 225(52 %)females were studied. Height and weight were measured for calculating body mass index (BMI). The type 2 diabetics and non-diabeticindividuals were investigated separately to determine the prevalence of obesity and overweight. Systolic and diastolic blood pressure wasrecorded using the standard method in a sitting position. The patients were diagnosed as diabetics and hypertensive on the criteria of the WorldHealth Organization. Results: The prevalence of obesity was 16.7% and 22.9%, and overweight was 27.1% and 22.9% in the total men andwomen studied in healthy non-diabetics; while the prevalence of obesity was 26.8% and 42.7%, and overweight was 45.8 and 38.2% in the totalm 1c en and women, in the diabetics respectively. In diabetic subjects, glycemic status (HbA ) and BMI had coefficient of correlation between 26matched pairs as r= 0.36, but not impressive. In over-all population, irrespective of gender, the diabetic subjects had higher obesity/overweight(ob/ow) ratio value (0.84) than non-diabetics (0.79).The prevalence of HT in non-diabetic group was 4.42% in males compared to 2.1% infemales, while in the diabetic group the prevalence of HT was 24.39% in males and 41.33% in females, respectively. Prevalence of HT indiabetics was higher in females than males, in contrast to non-diabetics. Conclusion: Our study shows that obesity and hypertension are bothcontributing factors in the development of type 2 diabetes mellitus; and the measures should be adopted for control of obesity and hypertensionto reduce the cause of diabetes mellitus.