Determinants of blood pressure treatment and control in obese people: evidence from the general population

International audienceObjective: We assessed hypertension prevalence, blood pressure (BP)-lowering treatment and control in obese adults compared with lean/normal-weight individuals in France. Methods: Multistage stratified random sample of 2075 adults from the French Nutrition and Health Survey (ENNS), a cross-sectional national survey carried out in 2006-2007. BP was measured three times on the left arm using an automatic device. Weight and height were assessed using standardized methods to compute body mass index (BMI, kg/m(2)). BP-lowering drugs were self-reported. BP control was defined as SBP/DBP less than 140/90 among hypertensive individuals. Results: As anticipated, mean SBP and DBP increased significantly across BMI categories (P for trend <0.0001). The age-adjusted and sex-adjusted prevalence of hypertension also increased across the same categories (15.7, 24.7 and 56.9%, respectively, P