Volume : 4, Issue : 7, July - 2015

Prevalence of obesity and Hypertension among rural women of Dakshina Kannada District, Karnataka

Padma Mohanan, Soumya Shetty

Abstract :

<p>Introduction: It is well documented that obesity exist among urban affluent society in South India. The overall socioeconomic development in rural community the life style of the rural population is changing which makes the rural women more sedentary in their habits. This study ings out the prevalence of obesity, its relationship with blood pressure in rural women and estimates the risk of hypertension in obesity. Objectives: To assess the problem of obesity and hypertension among rural women of DK Establish the relationship of obesity and hypertension and estimation of risk. Materials and Methods: The study was conducted in the adjacent villages of Mangalore taluk of DK district of Karnataka for a period of six months 200 women above the age of 20 years were free from any morbidity or non-pregnant during the course of the study were screened for obesity and hypertension. A pre-determined questionnaire was used to collect socio-demographic details. Blood pressure was recorded using a mercury sphygmomanometer. Anthropometric measurement like weight and height were recorded to assess the obesity prevalence. Results: The obesity in women for different age groups was observed. The highest prevalence of obesity was observed in the age group between 40-49years. The overall obesity above 20 years of age was 54%. As age advances from 30 years there was an increase in the prevalence of diastolic hypertension but not in a uniform way. The overall prevalence of hypertension was 26%. The prevalence of obesity among hypertensive was found to be 83.9%. The relative risk of obese women developing systolic hypertension was 4.5 times that of the non-obese women. The attributable risk was 78% and the odds ratio was 5.5.The prevalence of obesity among the diastolic hypertensive was 88.5%.The relative risk of obese women developing diastolic hypertension was 6.5 times than that of the non-obese women. Attributable risk was 84.5% and the odds ratio was 10.6. The differences of these were statistically significant (P&lt;0.001). The correlation coefficient was found to be 0.417and 0.253 for systolic and diastolic blood pressure respectively which was very highly significant. (P&lt;0.001). Conclusion: The maximum prevalence of obesity in women was seen among the age group of 40-49 years which may be attributed to the fact that women gain maximum weight between 40-49 years. It was also observed that greater degree of obesity were associated with higher level of blood pressure.</p>