Main Article Content
Burden of obesity in essential hypertension: Pattern and prevalence
Abstract
data such as age, gender, weight and height were obtained from patients at recruitment. Patients with congestive heart failure, secondary hypertension, chronic kidney disease, and other chronic diseases were
excluded. Pregnant women were also excluded. Obesity was defined according toWHOclassification. Statistical analysis was done by the Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 11.0. One thousand one hundred and two (1102) consecutive hypertensive patients were recruited. Two hundred and eighty six (286) were dropped due to evidence of overt heart failure (98) and chronic kidney disease and others (188).
There were (420) males (51.5%) and 396 females (48.5%), mean age 54.97 (±13.14) years. (Range 10-91). 7.6% (62) were underweight (36 males, 26 Females): 260 (31.9%) were overweight, consisting of 148 males and 112 females: 135 (16.5%) had mild obesity consisting of 48 males and 87 females: 43(5.3%) had moderate obesity with 15 males and 28 females while 30 (3.7%) had severe obesity (consisting of 22 females).
About two thirds of the hypertensive patients seen in two teaching hospitals in the SouthWest of Nigeria in this study were either overweight or obese. Therefore lifestyle modification geared toward weight
reduction should be emphasized in these patients.