Purnendu Kumar Singh1, Arun Kumar Pandey2, Soni Rani3
BACKGROUND
An elevated arterial pressure is probably the most important public health problem in developing & developed countries. Hypertension is the commonest cardiovascular disorder and one of the major risk factor for cardiovascular mortality.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
The present study was conducted in rural field practice area of the Department of Community medicine Katihar Medical College, Katihar. A sample of 500 families was selected by systematic sampling technique from all the families registered at Health Centre and all the persons aged 20 years and above residing in these families were selected for the purpose of the study.
RESULTS
In total 1680 study subjects, 602 persons (35.8%) aged 20 years & above were found to be hypertensive. It shows that hypertension increased with increasing age with peak in 60 + years category (65.6%). The prevalence was found to be 66.2% in persons with high salt intake and 31.2% and 20.3% respectively in average and low salt intake. The prevalence of hypertension was 40.3% in non-vegetarians and 34.7% among vegetarians. The prevalence was 48.4% in persons consuming saturated fats, 39.1% in those consuming unsaturated fats and 32.6% in both types of fat consumers. The prevalence of hypertension was 37.9% in those engaged in light physical activity while it was found to be 29.6% in moderate and 28.6% in heavy physical activity. It was found to be 91.2% in obese with while this was 23.4% and 18.9% respectively in normal and underweight. It showed that prevalence of hypertension was 38.3% in occasional, 40.0% in frequent and 73.1% in constant group and only 33.0% in group with no mental stress.
CONCLUSION
This study shows that the prevalence of hypertension was high in the subjects having low physical activity, High BMI and high saturated fat/salt intake and high level of mental stress.
