DOI: 10.36347/sajb.2016.v04i07.003

Pages: 565-570

The association between Obesity and Blood Pressure is well documented and a series of Obesity indices are used as risk factors or indicators of Blood Pressure or the presence of Hypertension. The objective is to observe for any relationship between Blood Pressure levels and its association with various indices of obesity by gender among traders of Watt market, Calabar. A total of 300 subjects (150 men and 150 women), aged 20-60 years were selected for the study using a convenient and random sampling technique in watt market Calabar. Weight, Height, Waist Circumference (WC), Hip Circumference (HC) and Blood Pressure were measured for each participant. Four anthropometric variables, Body Mass Index (BMI), Waist to Hip ratio (WHR), Waist to Height ratio (WHtR) were calculated and used to evaluate their association with Blood Pressure (BP). Pearson Correlation and Paired t-test analysis were used; Correlation was calculated between Systolic and Diastolic Blood Pressure and various indices of obesity. All four obesity indices used for this study were positively correlated with Blood Pressure and Hypertension. Waist to Height ratio in women and BMI in men had the strongest correlations or associations with BP. The association of Waist to height ratio in women and Body Mass Index (BMI) in men remained significant after adjustment for each of the other variables. However, BMI had the strongest correlation with continuous Blood Pressure in both genders. The association of WHR, and WC with BP and the prevalence of hypertension were a little weaker than those of BMI and WHtR in both men and women respectively. Blood pressure levels and Obesity indices increased steadily with age both in males and females. Variation in SBP was significantly correlated with all the obesity indices used in the study (BMI, WC, WHR, WHtR) in both males and females except WHtR in females. Also variation in DBP was significantly correlated with all indices of obesity (BMI, WC, WHR, WHtR) in males, bu