Association of waist to hip ratio and hypertention among people referred to urban health clinics in Arak city in 2008

Prevalence of obesity tends to increase in developing countries. Obesity as a health problem is very important because of its complications such as diabetes mellitus, hypertension, cardiovascular diseases and some cancers. Life style influences and affects on waist circumference and hip circumference. WHR is the most common index to determine description of fat in body. The purpose of this study was to estimate association of waist to hip ratio with blood pressure among people referred to urban health clinics in Arak city. This population based cross sectional study was conducted on 340 people over 18 referred to urban health clinics in Arak city. Data were collected using a questionnaire including demographic information, and were analyzed by SPSS software and Chi square test. In addition to waist circumference, hip circumference and blood pressure were measured by standard methods. 32.6% and 67.4% of the subjects were male and female respectively. 16.2% of the males and 12. 2 of the females had hypertension. Waist to hip ratio had a direct relation with hypertension. Under surface of the ROC curves were calculated for each female 0.802 and male 0.815. The best cut off WHR had been calculated for prediction of hypertension for males was 0.895 and for females was 0.835. Between WHR, WC and HC, WHR is the best predictive index for hypertension in population of Arak city.