Screening for Hypertension and Obesity in Rural Population of Nepal

Background Hypertension is a major non-communicable disease and obesity is a risk factor for non-communicable diseases around the globe. The prevalence of hypertension and obesity is gradually increasing in Nepal. Most cases in the rural population of Nepal remain undiagnosed due to lack of routine screening and awareness. Objective To screen the cases of hypertension and obesity in a rural population of Nepal and also to depict the association between them. Method A cross sectional study was used to collect data on age, sex, height, weight and blood pressure through a screening health camp. Only the respondents who were not already taking antihypertensive drugs were included in this study. The measurement of blood pressure and body mass index was done using standard instruments. Joint National Committee VII classification was used to classify hypertension and World Health Organization classification was used for Body Mass Index. Analysis was done in IBM SPSS version 20. Result Out of the total respondents, 69.8% were female and 30.2% were male, and mean age was 48.73 (±16.25) years. Among them, 375 (30.17%) respondents were found to be hypertensive and 137 (11.02%) were pre-hypertensive. Similarly, 27% male participants and 72 % female participants were obese. Almost three-fifths of the obese participants were hypertensive. Conclusion Pre-hypertension and hypertension were seen in 11.02% and 30.17% of the study population respectively. As routine screening of hypertension and obesity is not done in our country, most of them remain undiagnosed.