Evaluation of personnel blood pressure and its risk factors in university affiliated medical centers: Iran’s Health Day 2013

Background Hypertension is a risk factor for life threatening diseases such as cerebrovascular accidents, coronary artery diseases, congestive heart failure and chronic renal failure. The prevalence of non-communicable diseases such as hypertension and diabetes including obesity has increased over the past few years in Iran. The first step for modification of cardiovascular diseases in a defined population is to assess the prevalence of their risk factors. This study was conduceted to assess personnel blood pressure and its risk factors in one of the medical universities of Tehran in the Health Day of 2013. Methods: This cross sectional study was performed from May 19, 2013 to May 24, 2013 (I.R. of Iran’s Health Weak) in one of the medical universities of Tehran. Participants completed voluntarily a researcher-made questionnaire which composed of demographic characteristics and variables about risk factors and preventive factors of cardiovascular diseases such as smoking, history of diabetes, history of hypertension, physical exercise status and so on. Blood pressure was measured by mercury sphygmomanometer and weight and height were measured by a ground analogue scale. Results: Of 195 persons participated in this study, 180 persons (92.3%) were male. The mean age of participants was 33.75 (±9.87) yr. The mean of systolic and diastolic blood pressure was 114.44 (±8.67) mmHg and 73.06 (±8.45) mmHg, respectively. The prevalence of overweight, obesity, prehypertension and hypertension was 41.7%, 17.8%, 40.4% and 11.7% respectively. Only 8 persons (5.6%) were cigarette smokers. Conclusion: Despite the low prevalence of hypertension in our samples, the high prevalence of prehypertension and overweight need great attention. Interventions like life style modification could be effective in prevention of hypertension.