Sanam Anwar

Abstract

Introduction: Evidence that hypertension is related to increase in body fat is well established in literature. Evidence gathered from several studies shows that central obesity is a greater risk factor for cardiovascular diseases. Oman has witnessed an epidemiological transition to non-communicable diseases. Objectives: The objective of the study was to examine the correlation between different anthropometric indicators and hypertension in Omani adults. Materials and Methods: A total of 500 adults participated in this study after taking informed consent from them. All participants underwent blood pressure and anthropometric measurements using standard procedures. The population study was separated in males and females and the effect of anthropometric measurements was compared for normotensive and hypertensive population. Correlation of anthropometric measurements with mean systolic and diastolic blood pressure was observed. Results: Mean values of all anthropometric measurements were significantly higher in hypertensive compared to people with normal blood pressure across both the gender. In both males and females; hip circumference, waist circumference, waist height ratio and BMI had significant strong positive correlation with mean systolic blood pressure (p Conclusion: Simple anthropometric measurements like hip circumference, waist circumference and waist height ratio can be used to predict hypertension in both males and females. Keywords: Hip circumference, AUC, Correlation, Body mass index, Hypertension.

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Abstract

Introduction: The WHO report in 2010 on country profiles estimated that non-communicable diseases account for nearly 83% of the total deaths in Oman. Prehypertension can predict cardiovascular morbidities. Objectives: The study was carried out with the objective of identifying important covariates of prehypertension in Oman. Materials and Methods: In the cross sectional study, a structured questionnaire was used for data collection which had details on socio-demography along with measurements of blood pressure and anthropometry. Binary logistic regression was used to identify important predictors of prehypertension. Wald’s test was used to see the significance of coefficients of regression. Results: 233 individuals (46.6%) suffered from prehypertension out of the total 500 study population. Mean age of prehypertensives was 42.48 ±1.2. Most of them (70.8%) were males and 29.2% were females. 49.9% had secondary education and 46.4% had higher secondary education. Wald test was significant for gender (Wald= 7.263, p=0.007); sedentary occupation (Wald= 4.518, p=0.034) and age (Wald= 10.870, p=0.001). Percentage accuracy of classification of the model was 78.8%.The predictor model (chisquare =29.6, p=0.000) accounted for 14.7% variability in prehypertension. Area under the curve was 0.725, p=0.000. Conclusion: Age, occupation and gender were seen as important predictors of prehypertension in the study population. Keywords: Prehypertension, covariates, Age, Education, BMI.

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