Background: Improvement in technology has led to significant changes in human lifestyle. As a result the life has become easier and these days people are more prone to heart diseases and other health problems. Sedentary lifestyle and dietary changes contribute to the increased incidence of obesity, hypertension and other vascular diseases. This leads to increased mortality and morbidity rate. The WHO has given more prominence to the prevention and management of non- communicable diseases like obesity and hypertension from the year 2008. Hypertension is a “silent killer” as early stages of this disease has no clinical manifestations. Overweight and obesity will increase the risk of high BP. Aim: Comparison of body mass index and blood pressure hip circumference and waist circumference among healthy volunteers at selected institutions in Mangalore. Materials and Methods: A quantitative approach with non-experimental descriptive co-relational design was used for this study. 160 samples were selected by non-probability purposive sampling technique. Blood pressure, height, weight and body mass index of the subjects were monitored. The samples were composed of males and female healthy volunteers, who were again classified based on body mass index as underweight, normal weight, overweight and obese. Data was collected by using demographic proforma, clinical proforma and sphygmomanometer. The data was analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Results. The result of the study showed that both systolic blood pressure and diastolic blood pressure is higher among males (121.97) than females (81.68). Another finding revealed that overall mean body mass index (24.33) of the female subject was higher. The mean body mass index value of the male subject was lesser than females. The result showed that there was a positive correlation between systolic blood pressure and body mass index in males (r=0.23) and females (r=0.35). There was a positive correlation between diastolic blood pressure and body mass index in males (r=0.30) and females(r=0.44). The investigators also found that there was an association between systolic blood pressure and age in both males ( 2 = 9.42) and females ( 2 = 9). There was also an association between diastolic blood pressure and age in both males ( 2=9.39) and females ( 2 = 18.37). An association was also seen between systolic blood pressure and stress ( 2=8.07) and diastolic blood pressure and stress ( 2=8.07).The study also found that there was no association between body mass index with selected demographic variables such as gender, type of food consumption, habits and nature of work.
