Hypertension and obesity are known to be closely associated. In this study we aimed to investigate the coexistence of obesity and hypertension and to confirm obesity as a risk factor for hypertensive in Saudis or vice versa. The study group was composed of 646 hypertensive (males = 326; females = 320), and 14159 non-hypertensive (males = 5899; females = 8260), 2581 obese (males = 896; females 1685) and 12224 non-obese individuals (males = 5329; females = 6894). Prevalence of obesity was calculated in the hypertensive individuals and the results were compared to the results in non-hypertensive group. A highly significant (p < 0.001) increase in obesity was obtserved in the hypertensive group (males = 21.47%; females = 31.9%) compared to the non-hypertensive group (males = 14.0%; females 18.63%). On the other hand prevalence of hypertension in the obese males and females was found to be 7.8% and 8.7%, respectively. This was significantly higher than in the non-obese group (males 4.8% and females 2.5%). The results showed that almost one third of the hypertensive individuals are obese, thus indicating a major role of obesity in the aetiology of hypertension. The results also showed that about 8% of the obese groups have hypertension. These results also show that obesity is more frequent in the hypertensive, compared to hypertension in the obese group. The studied population was grouped according to the province to which they belonged and the prevalence of obesity is hypertensive and prevalence of hypertensive in obese groups was calculated. Differences were noted in the different provinces. These may be a consequence of the life style changes adopted by the people in these provinces. The main conclusion to be drawn from these results is that obesity must be decreased in Saudi population in order to decrease the prevalence of associated complications such as hypertension and hence cardiovascular disease.

No abstract