Comparison of systolic and diastolic blood pressure of healthy individuals with different BMI ranges

Background with aims and objectives: obesity and in particular the central obesity have been linked to hypertension. the objective of the present study was to compare systolic and diastolic blood pressure (b.p) of control,overweight and obese healthy individuals. study design: analytical cross-sectional. materials and methods: eighty one (81) healthy subjects,both males and females (ages 18-60 years) were selected from the general population. blood pressure was measured by mercurial sphygmomanometer. body mass index (bmi) was calculated as weight (kilogram) divided by square of height (meters squared). we divided the participants into control,overweight and obese according to their bmi. in the next step we categorized our study subjects according to gender and bmi. group i included fifty four (54) male subjects comprising of 18 controls,18 overweight and 18 obese subjects. group ii included twenty seven (27) female subjects comprising of 09 controls,09 overweight and 09 obese subjects. results: results of the present study reveal a significantly higher systolic as well as diastolic b.p in overweight and obese subjects as compared to controls except in male controls and male overweight subjects where the difference in systolic b.p was found to be statistically insignificant. conclusion: we can conclude that an increase in weight seems to be associated with an increase in systolic and diastolic b.p.