Vol. 2, Issue 12, Part L (2016)

Abstract
Hypertension is a major modifiable risk factor associated with cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. Prehypertension is considered to be the starting point for cardiovascular diseases and also because it is estimated to decrease life expectancy by as much as 5 years. The auscultatory method with a trained observer and mercury sphygmomanometer is regarded as ‘gold standard’ for office blood pressure measurement, using stethoscope and looking for Korotkoff sounds. The objective of the present study is to find out the prevalence of prehypertension and hypertension in a sample student population in a medical college The resting blood pressure of 250 MBBS students (both boys and girls, aged 18-23years) of a semester, was recorded by manual sphygmomanometer in left arm sitting posture with arm placed at the level of right atrium in accordance with WHO guidelines. Apart from this data like age, sex, height, weight, BMI, whether urban/rural native, history of smoking/alcohol, family history of diabetes, hypertension, t categorical data were measured in counts and the quantitative data were analyzed using mean and Standard deviation (SD) as summary measure. ”t” test was used as test of significance. Among those of urban origin 114 were normotensive, 17 had prehypertension and 2 had hypertension (stage I). Among those of rural (and semi urban) origin, 103 were normotensive, 13 had prehypertension and 1 had stage I hypertension. The prevalence of prehypertension and hypertension lower among students of rural origin, however this observation is not statistically significant.