Relationship between blood pressure, body mass index and health promoting lifestyle practices of women in selected rural communities in Osun State Nigeria

Objective: Globally, studies have shown that the trend of overweight and obesity has increased astronomically and there is a close link between body mass index and blood pressure. This study determined the link between the body mass index (BMI), blood pressure and health promoting practices of women in rural and sub-urban communities.Methods: Multi-stage sampling technique was employed to select 394 women from three rural/semiurban communities purposively selected from Osun State for this cross sectional study. Interviewer's administered questionnaire was used to collect data such as socio- demographic data, blood pressure, anthropometric indices and health promoting lifestyle practices of the respondent. Data analysis was done using SPSS version 17 software and level of statistical significance was set at p < 0.05.Result: The mean age of the respondents was 40.28±16.03 years and majority earned average monthly income of between N1000-5000 ($5-25). The mean BMI was 28.04±5.449 kg/m2 and about 20% 0f respondent were obese The mean systolic blood pressure was 114.14±17.835 mmHg while diastolic blood pressure was 71.04±12.99 mmHg and about 10% of respondents had hypertension. There was positive and significant relationship between BMI and blood pressure (r = 0.15, p=0.01). The study demonstrated no significant relationship between the health promoting lifestyle practices of the respondents BMI and blood pressure.Conclusion: The significant relationship between BMI and hypertension validate the need for health promoting lifestyle intervention programme for rural women and similar population in order to control the increasing prevalence of non-communicable diseases.Keywords: blood pressure, body mass index, rural community, Health Promoting Lifestyles practices, women and socio-economic statu