Prevalence of hypertension and respective risk factors in adults in Bandar Abbas, Iran

Introduction: Hypertension is the most common and major important risk factors for cardiovascular diseases. Rapid socio-economic changes in recent decades has increased the prevalence risk factors of heart diseases - including high blood pressure. The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence of hypertension and respective risk factors in adults of Bandar Abbas in 2012. Methods: In this descriptive cross-sectional study, randomized cluster sampling was performed to select 1531 people over 30 years of Bandar Abbas (639 men, 892 women aged 30-70) we used interview and clinical examination for data collection. The instruments collecting data were standard questionnaire and mercurial pressure gauge and portable digital scale. The data were statistically analyzed by SPSS Software, using Chi-square test, t-test, and ANOVA. P<0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: Prevalence of hypertension in the study was 35.3%. This figure for males was 38% and for females was 33%. The statistical results obtained from this study showed that the prevalence of hypertension with increasing BMI also increases, so that 58.1 percent of subjects had BMI&ge;25. A significant difference was obtained between proportion of women (34.94%) and men (23.18%) with BMI greater than 25 (P<0.05). Conclusion: This study showed high prevalence of hypertension in Bandar Abbas. It seems that BMI, age, sex, diabetes, hyperlipidemia, hypertension, are leading factors in high blood pressure.