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ABSTRACT

Background: Cardiovascular disease is a group of disorders/diseases of the heart and blood vessels, including
heart attack and stroke that is responsible for many deaths around the world.
Objective: The general objective of this study was to assess body composition, smoking and alcohol as risk factors
to hypertension among adults in Abeokuta, Ogun state, Nigeria.
Methods: Four wards were randomly selected from each of the three local government areas in the city of
Abeokuta, Ogun State. Convenient sampling method was used to recruit 300 voluntary respondents into the study.
A semi structured questionnaire was used to obtain information on socio-demographic, socio-economic
characteristics, modifiable and non-modifiable risk factors of non-communicable chronic diseases and the dietary
habits of the respondents. Blood pressure and anthropometric measurement of respondents were taken using
standard procedures.
Results: The results indicated that majority of the respondents were within the age ranges of 41-50 years (32%).
Using the American Heart Association (AHA) blood pressure classification, 40.3% had normal blood pressure,
30.7% were pre-hypertensive while 29.0% had hypertension. More than half of the respondents (55.3%) were
overweight while 17.0% were obese, 6.1 % were current smokers and 21% were current alcohol drinkers. Blood
pressure had a positive correlation with tobacco smoking, alcohol drinking, body mass index and waist-hip-ratio,
these associations were significant at p<0.05. Tobacco smoking contributed significantly to hypertension in this
study (R2=0.114, F=38.342, p= 0.000).
Conclusion: Findings of the study showed a high prevalence of hypertension, overweight and obesity, alcohol
intake and smoking were significantly associated with hypertension.

Keywords

Dietary Habit, Risk Factors, Cardiovascular Diseases, Adults

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