A Cross Sectional study on systemic hypertension and It’s relationship with waist to stature ratio in an urban population in Chennai

Hypertension is a Silent Killer disease. Worldwide , the most frequent disease causing Cardiovascular morbidity and mortality is Systemic Hypertension . Overall in the year 2000 , about 26.4% of the world’s population had Systemic Hypertension. It is expected that approximately 1 in 3 adults aged above 20 years will have the disease by the year 2025 . Hypertension is an iceberg disease. It can be described as the sleeping snake which bites when it wakes up. METHODS: A total of 440 study participants aged 20 to 60 years selected by two stage Simple Random sampling from T.P.Chathram, an urban locality in Chennai, the field practice area attached to Govt. Kilpauk Medical College were administered a semi structured Questionnaire for Socio demographic data and basic anthropometric measurements such as Height ,Weight ,Waist and Hip Circumference were taken including Blood pressure using a mercury sphygmomanometer with standard procedures. RESULTS: The Overall prevalence of hypertension was 27.5% with 95% C. I. of 23.33% to 31.67% . The Mean Waist to stature Ratio was 0.506 (±0.03) with 95% C.I. of 0.503 to 0.509. The Receiver operating Characteristic ( ROC ) Curve analysis done revealed area under the curve ( AUC ) of WSR > Waist Hip Ratio > Body Mass Index. The Maximum Sensitivity of 96.7% and Specificity of 26.6% of WSR as a predictor of Hypertension was established at 0.502 . CONCLUSION: The prevalence of hypertension was high in the study population which requires comprehensive multimodal approach to treatment .The Superiority of Waist to Stature Ratio as a predictor of Hypertension has been established with greater AUC. So, Waist to Stature Ratio can be used for initial screening for hypertension at the Community level