The Prevalence of High Blood Pressure and Its Relationship with Anthropometric Indicators; a Population Based Study in Fars Province, IR Iran

Background: The burden of non-communicable diseases is rising globally. The present study was carried out to examine the relationship between different anthropometric indices and blood pressure in the Iranian population.

Methods: A cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted on 3916 subjects including 1976 males and 1940 females, aged 15- 64 years from a healthy population in Shiraz, IR Iran. Anthropometric variables of each person including weight, height, waist circumference (WC), waist to height ratio (WHR) and body mass index (BMI) were calculated along with measuring systolic and diastolic blood pressures (BP). The relationship between blood pressure and different anthropometric variables was determined in both genders.

Results: The mean±SD systolic blood pressures were 123.9±20.0 and 121.2±17.7 mmHg while the mean diastolic blood pressures were 78.3±11.9 and 77.4±12.9 mmHg in men and women respectively (P<0.001). The prevalence of hypertension in men (23.8 %) was significantly more than that of women (21.1 %). Mean systolic and diastolic blood pressures increased with age and BMI in both genders. Anthropometric indices showed a positive association with systolic and diastolic blood pressures.

Conclusion: The BMI and WC showed a strong association with systolic and diastolic blood pressure. The suggested lower cut-off values of the anthropometric indicators will cover maximum of the population with higher odds of having hypertension and may help reduce the levels of population’s mean blood pressure.