studying the blood pressure in isfahan rural residents and its relationship with bmi

introduction: obesity is an independent risk factor in developing cvd, type ii diabetes, and gall bladder disease, different types of cancers, osteoarthritis and mortality. weight gain during adult life, especially during the third and fourth decades, is associated with increased blood pressure. methods: random samples of nearly 1493 men and women aged between 16 to 85 years old were selected from the 12 villages around isfahan. in this cross- sectioned experiment, participants visited a survey clinic, where blood pressure, anthropometric measurements were collected. age and sex were also used in the analysis. body mass index (bmi) was used to measure obesity. findings: the mean bmi  of the studied population was 23.37, systolic blood pressure 122 mmhg and diastolic blood pressure 76mmmhg. most of the population had bmi 20-24.9. a small group had bmi>40. another important finding was the correlation between blood pressure and bmi; systolic and diastolic blood pressure were significantly correlated with bmi (p<0.0001). anova indicated significant difference in systolic blood pressure among different groups of bmi (p<0.0001). diastolic blood pressure was also significantly different among bmi groups (p<0.0001). conclusion: the finding of this study confirms the correlation between the blood pressure and bmi. these results are consistent to the other studies that showed blood pressure changes are affected by bmi changes. increasing weight is resulted in the increase of the salt retention. the findings strongly suggested that weight control is a necessary element of the hypertension control. interventions to control hypertension are emphasized through primary prevention i.e. by identifying the new cases of hypertension development.