The prevalence of obesity and cardiovascular risk factors in Isfahan

Background: Obesity has been known as a main risk factor in cardiovascular and some other diseases such as hypertension, hyper lipidemia, diabetes & cancer. Objective: To determine obesity in men and women above 19 years in Isfahan and to evaluate the relationship between obesity and other CVD risk factors. Methods: Through a cross-sectional study 1924 women and 1770 men were selected and their blood pressure, blood lipids, affliction with diabetes and metabolic syndrome were tested. Also using questionnaires some variables such as age, sex and history of different diseases were collected. BMI, WC and WHR were determined by trained persons. Findings: The results showd that BMI, WC, WHR in both sexes increase with the increase of age. In the age group over 65, the decrease of obesity is seen. 37.1% of women with BMI ³ 30 and 28.81% of men with BMI=25-29.9 afflicted with hyper cholesterolemia. Proportional chance of affliction with other CVD risk factors has a significant relationship with BMI ³ 30.HDL of women was more than men and also was independent on the average. However, 29.1% of men with BMI=25-29.5, 31.9% of men with WC ³ 102 and 26% of men with WHR ³ 95% had HDL < 40mg/dl. Hypertension is more prevalent in both sexes with abdominal obesity. The patients with BMI ³ 30, are 9.98 times more to be diabetic. Conclusion: The prevalence of obesity and CVD risk factors in urban population of Isfahan is significant