BMI TO BLOOD PRESSURE

Objectives: To establish association of BMI, hypertension and ethnicity. StudyDesign: Observational cross sectional survey. Setting: Patients attending medical OPD of JinnahMedical College Hospital Korangi, Karachi. Period: April 2014 to December 2014. Methods:Blood pressure was measured and BMI calculated. The WHO recommended BMI cut off pointsfor South Asians were applied, overweight or obese were with a BMI of >23 kg/m2 or >27.5 kg/m2 respectively. Cardiometabolic risk factors Diabetes and hypertension were recorded. SPSSVersion 20 was used to analyze data. Results: Of n= 420 (100%) patients n= 130 (31%) weremales and n=290 (69%) females. Mean age was 36.37 SD±12.98 years (CI 35.13-37.61)Overweight (BMI 23- 27.5 kg/m2)) weren=83 (19.8%). There were 6 major ethnic groups. Mean BMI>24kg kg/m2 was present infemales of all ethnic groups. Normal diastolic blood pressure in females was higher thanmales in all ethnic groups except Urdu speaking p-value 0.000 Hypertension prevalencen= 98(23.3%) showed significant differences (p-value 0.039) in ethnic groups, with highestprevalence in SindhI n=10(30%) Urdu speaking n=27(27.8%), Punjabi n=14(26.9%), ofthese n=66(69.3%) were overweight and n=37 (41.1%) obese p-value 0.000. There was asignificant relationship between BMI and hypertension in overweight and obese males andfemales’ p-value 0.000 and 0.028 respectively. Conclusion: Significant relationship of BMI tohypertension and ethnic differences in prevalence of hypertension exists. Mean BMI in femalesis in the overweight category. Females have significant higher diastolic blood pressure thanmales in all groups except Urdu speaking; Intervention for prevention of obesity and reducingchronic disease burden needs to be urgently addressed.