Nutritional Status of Obese Hypertensive Individuals Attending Irrua Specialist Teaching Hospital, Irrua, Edo State

Background: Adults and older people are more likely to have obesity-related hypertension which pose a double risk for cardiovascular diseases. Therefore, asessment of adults and older people's nutritional status has become an important issue due to a rise in ageing globally.

Objectives: The research determined the nutritional status of obese hypertensive individuals attending Irrua Specialist Teaching Hospital Irrua.

Methods: A descriptive cross sectional study design was used with a sample size of 440 obese hypertensive individuals. Questionnaires, personal interviews, clinical examination and anthropometric measurements wereused to collect data using purposive sampling technique. Data collected was analysed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (IBM SPSS) 22 Version.

Results: A total of 440 respondents were used in the study and data were elicited from all of this number giving a 100% response rate. Out of the 440 (100%) respondents, 133 (30.2%) were males while 307 (69.8%) were females; 424 (96.4%) were 31 years and above. A total of 301 (68.4%) had high total cholesterol; uncontrolled hypertension and class 1 obesity were the highest among the study population represented by 36.1% and 53.2% respectively.

Conclusion: It can be concluded based on the key findings of this study that there is statistically significant association between nutritional status by Lipid Profile and obesity status by Body Mass Index (BMI) among the obese hypertensive individuals.

Recommendation: Obese hypertensive individuals should be encouraged from time to time to watch their lifestyle and check their nutritional status.