Socioeconomic Factors Responsible for Obesity Hypertension among Bangladeshi Adults

The analytical results presented here were the outcome of the information collected from 960 adults of ages 18 years and aboveliving in both urban and rural areas. These adults were investigated by some doctors and nurses from and nearby their working places using quota sampling plan with an objective of covering around 70percent diabetic adults so that sufficient obese and hypertension patients were included in the sample. Out of 960 adults 15.1 percent were suffering from hypertension. Among these adults of hypertension, 16.5 percent were obese. The level of obesity and prevalence of hypertension were significantly associated. Thus it was decided to identify the socioeconomic variables responsible for the sufferings of the adults simultaneously from obesity and hypertension. It was evident from the analytical results that age, marital status, physical inactivity, and involvement in sedentary activities were the responsible factors for the simultaneous sufferings of obesity and hypertension. These information were noted from the test of independence of obesity hypertension and socioeconomic variables. Besides these variables, gender, occupation, value of body mass index, and use of can food were also identified as the responsible factors for prevalence of obesity hypertension among the adults. These letter group of variables were identified by discriminant analysis.

Keywords: Obesity; Hypertension; Socioeconomic variables; Odds ratio; Standard error of ln(odds ratio); Discriminant analysis; Pooled within group correlation