Tamrakhar, DKarmacharya, BMShrestha, RKoju, RFitzpatrick, ALShrestha, A2025-12-012025-12-012019https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14572/3338Tamrakhar D,1 Karmacharya BM,1,2 Shrestha R,3 Koju R,4 Fitzpatrick AL,5 Shrestha A2 1Department of Community Medicine, 2Department of Public Health, 3Department of Pharmacology, 4Department of Internal Medicine Kathmandu University School of Medical Sciences, Dhulikhel, Nepal. 5Departments of Family Medicine, Epidemiology, and Global Health, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USAABSTRACT Background Prehypertension, defined as a systolic blood pressure of 120-139 mmHg or a diastolic blood pressure of 80-89 mmHg, leads to higher rates of incident hypertension, and is associated with excess morbidity and deaths from cardiovascular diseases. Objective To estimate the prevalence of and examine the factors associated with prehypertension in Dhulikhel. Method This cross-sectional study utilized data from the 752 participants of the Dhulikhel Heart Study (DHS). The data collectors interviewed the participants at their home using a tablet based structured pre-tested questionnaire and measured blood pressure using a standard digital blood pressure machine (Microlife, Switzerland). Multivariate analysis was conducted using generalized estimating equations with multivariate logistic regression (with household as cluster) adjusting for age, sex, ethnicity, marital status, income, education, alcohol consumption, smoking, physical activity, body mass index (BMI) and food consumption. Result Males had a three-fold higher odds of prehypertension than females (OR:3.17, 95% CI:1.91-5.26). The odds of prehypertension increased with being overweight (OR:2.29, 95% CI:1.42-3.70) and with being obese (OR:5.00, 95% CI:1.81-13.79) compared to normal BMI. Education reduced the odds of developing prehypertension (OR:0.51, 95% CI:0.29-0.91). Those who met the recommended level of physical activity (OR:0.61, 95% CI:0.40-0.95) also were associated with lower prehypertension prevalence. Conclusion Obese/overweight and being male increased the odds of prehypertension whereas formal education and recommended level of physical activities were associated with lower prehypertension prevalence. Primordial prevention against cardiovascular risk factors at the community level, especially targeting the young adult male, is imperative. KEY WORDS Nepal, Prehypertensoin, Risk factorsen-USNepalPrehypertensoinRisk factorsArticle