CORRELATION OF TELEVISION WATCHING WITH BMI AND HYPERTENSIONAMONG ADULTS IN KOMERIKA AT NELLORE A CROSS SECTIONAL STUDY

Abstract: Background: Although the public health importance of the association between television (TV) viewing and obesity and/or related outcomes have been demonstrated in both cross-sectional and prospective studies elsewhere, similar studies are lacking within the Nellore region. With the view to fill this gap in the literature, the current study explored the association between TV exposure and overweight/obesity among adults. Objective: The objective was to assess the correlation of Television watching with BMIamong rural adults. Methods: The participants in this cross-sectional study came from rural (Komerika) area of Nellore. A total of 50 adults were randomly selected. Trained investigators administered a standard questionnaire to each participant during a face-to-face interview and carried out blood pressure monitoring and assessment of BMI. Results: The results show that, out of 50 adultswith regard to the category of the blood pressure 30(60%) had normal blood pressure, 13(26%) had high normal blood pressure and 7(14%) had hypertension. The correlation coefficient value for television watchingand blood pressure is 0.90, television watching and BMI is 0.57 which states that there is a positive correlation between television watching and HTN & BMI. Conclusion: The blood pressure and BMI increases with more television watching, but socioeconomic factors are also important as hypertension is caused by multiple factors. Keywords: Adults, Hypertension, blood pressure, Television watching, BMI