Abstract

BOGANTES PERERIA, Eric; CHAVARRIA VIQUEZ, Jorge  and  ARGUEDAS BOLANOS, Doris. Prevalencia de Obesidad en pacientes hipertensos en el Servicio de Cardiología del Hospital México de Costa Rica . Rev. costarric. cardiol [online]. 2009, vol.11, n.1, pp.13-18. ISSN 1409-4142.

Abstract Prevalence of Obesity at México Hospital in San José, Costa Rica outpatients Introduction. Increased body-mass index is associated with an elevated risk of systemic hypertension. Given the high prevalence of obesity in our country, we performed this study to determine the prevalence of obesity in a group of hypertensive patients from our Cardiology Department. Material and methods: this is an observational, retrospective study. We recruited a group of hypertensive patients from the "Clinic of Arterial Hypertension" of the Cardiology Department at the Hospital México of Costa Rica, in whom we assessed the degree of overweight and obesity by means of body mass index measurement and abdominal circumference. Results: Four hundred and seventy five patients were analyzed, 43% of them where in the range of overweight, and 42 % had some degree of obesity (85% in the entire group). One of every 4 hypertensive individuals had diabetes mellitus also. Fifty six percent of the patients had blood pressures ≥ 140/90mmHg. Conclusion: The prevalence of overweight or obesity in our hypertensive population was aproximately of 85% in a third level complexity hospital in Costa Rica, and the relationship among the arterial pressure levels and the prevalence of other risk factors is linear.

Keywords : Obesity; Body-mass index; hypertension; abdominal circumference.

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