Prevalence of Undiagnosed Elevated Blood Pressure in Okparabe Community in Southern Nigeria

Purpose: To assess the incidence of undiagnosed hypertension and body mass index (BMI) profile of th e inhabitants of Okparabe community in Ughelli South of Delta State, Nigeria. Methods: In a prospective study involving stratified random sampling, weights, heights and blood pressures (BP) of 500 subjects (aged, 39.20 ± 12.05 years) fro m different compounds in Okparabe community of Delta State, Nigeria were evaluated. Their BMI values were calculated. Results: Males constituted 51.8 % of the sample studied. Prevalence of undiagnosed hypertension was 29.8 % with several of the subjects (54.2 %) presenting with BP in the pre-hypertensive range. Some of the subjects were e ither overweight (31.2 %) or obese (11.8 %). The average systolic/diastolic BP and BMI values were 127.89±14.81/86.54±36.15 mmHg and 24.63 ± 6.09 kgm -2 respectively. Conclusion: High prevalence of undiagnosed hypertension exist in Okparabe community Many of the inhabitants also have elevated BMI values that require necessary atte ntion.