one of the leading causes of death are non - communicable diseases ( ncds ) , killing more people each year than all other causes combined . it has been reported that nearly 80% of ncd deaths occur in low- and middle- income countries . it has been estimated that about one fourth of global ncd - related deaths take place before the age of 60(1 - 4 ) . it has been indicated that the prevalence of non - communicable diseases such as hypertension and diabetes including obesity has increased over the past few years in iran(1 , 4 ) . the prevalence of hypertension , diabetes , obesity and overweight in big cities in iran was 14% , 13% , 27% and 20% respectively(1 ) . hypertension is a risk factor for life threatening diseases such as cerebrovascular accidents ( cva ) , coronary artery diseases ( cvd ) , congestive heart failure ( chf ) and chronic renal failure ( crf ) ( 3 - 13 ) . based on national health and nutrition examination survey ( nhanes ) database in united states , the prevalence of hypertension was 24.5% and 28.4% in 1988 - 1994 and 1999 - 2000 respectively ( 11 , 12 ) . the prevalence of hypertension in the capital city of big provinces of iran was 11%.(1 ) also , in zabol city in south east of iran , the prevalence of hypertension was 13.9% among adults ( 4 ) . in semnan province , the prevalence of hypertension was 24.1% and 24.8% in urban and rural area respectively.(5 ) in tehran , the prevalence of hypertension among taxi drivers was 35.4% ( 7 ) . 
 
 based on phase 1 of isfahan healthy heart study , the prevalence of hypertension in female and male were 15.6% and 18.8% respectively . the prevalence of hypertension was higher in women than in men , except in under 25-year age group . overall 26.7% of hypertensive male and 47.7% of hypertensive female were on anti - hypertensive pharmacological treatment among which bp was under control in 6.4% of the male and 13.8% of the female ( 8) . ncd risk factors can be categorized as " modifiable " and " non - modifiable " . modifiable parameters include factors that can be altered such as individual and community influences , living and working conditions and socio - cultural factors . non - modifiable parameters include those factors that are beyond the control of the individual , such as age , sex and genetic factors ( 1 , 4 ) . diabetes mellitus , cardiovascular diseases , cancer , and chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases are linked by common preventable risk factors related to lifestyle ( unhealthy diet , physical inactivity , obesity and overweight , and tobacco use ) ( 1 ) . also , four behavioral risk factors that are pervasive aspects of economic transition , rapid urbanization and 21st - century lifestyles are tobacco use , unhealthy diet , insufficient physical activity and the harmful use of alcohol . these risk factors affect low- and middle- income countries , and on poorer people within all countries , mirroring the underlying socioeconomic determinants . there is a fact that poverty exposes people to behavioral risk factors for ncds and , in turn , the resulting ncds may become an important driver to the downward spiral that leads families towards poverty ( 1 ) . it has been shown that a major reduction in the burden of ncds will come from population - wide interventions , which are cost effective and may even be revenue - generating . however , it has been reported effective interventions , such as tobacco control measures and salt reduction , are not implemented on a wide scale because of inadequate political commitment , insufficient engagement of non - health sectors , lack of resources , vested interests of critical constituencies , and limited engagement of key stakeholders ( 1 ) . 
 
 according to global status report on non - communicable diseases 2010 smoking is estimated to cause about 71% of lung cancer , 42% of chronic respiratory disease and nearly 10% of cardiovascular disease . it has been demonstrated that adequate consumption of fruit and vegetables reduces the risk for cardiovascular diseases , stomach cancer and colorectal cancer . moreover , most populations consume much higher levels of salt than recommended by world health organization ( who ) for disease prevention ; high salt consumption is an important determinant of high blood pressure and cardiovascular risk . high consumption of saturated fats and trans - fatty acids is linked to heart disease . in addition , it has been indicated that raised blood pressure is estimated to cause 7.5 million deaths , about 12.8% of all deaths . the prevalence of raised blood pressure is similar across all income groups , though it is generally lowest in high - income populations ( 1 ) . it has been illustrated that at least 2.8 million people die each year as a result of being overweight or obese . also , it is estimated that raised blood pressure cause about 7.5 million deaths , about 12.8% of all deaths.(2 , 6 ) risks of heart disease , strokes and diabetes increase steadily with increasing body mass index ( bmi ) . prevalence of overweight is over 50% in the who european region , the eastern mediterranean region and the region of the americas ( 1 ) . physical inactivity is a risk factor of ncds that causes 3.2 million people die each year . it has been reported that people who are insufficiently physically active have a 20% to 30% increased risk of all - cause mortality . moreover , regular physical activity reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease including high blood pressure and diabetes ( 1 ) . 
 
 according to the alma ata declaration , it is obvious that in effective management of diseases , three aspects should be considered . the second aspect was preventive intervention which includes personal and behavioral actions and education to encourage behavioral modification . the third aspect was curative and rehabilitative intervention that includes services focusing on individuals who are already diagnosed , to prevent complications ( 1 ) . the first step of planning and policy making for intervention and modification of cardiovascular diseases in a defined population is to assess the prevalence of their risk factors . therefore , this study performed to assess personnel blood pressure and its risk factors in one of the medical universities of tehran in te health day of 2013 . this cross - sectional study was performed from may 19 , 2013 to may 24 , 2013 ( i.r . of iran s health weak ) in one of the medical universities of tehran . participants were personnel of the university that completed a researcher - made questionnaire voluntarily ; the questionnaire composed of demographic variables such as sex , age and variables about risk factors and preventive factors of cardiovascular diseases such as smoking , history of diabetes , history of hypertension , physical exercise status and so on . systolic and diastolic pressures were measured after the participants had rested in a quiet area for 5 minutes . participants were advised to avoid exercise for at least 30 minutes before their blood pressure measurement . the korotkoff phase i ( appearance ) and phase v ( disappearance ) were recorded for the systolic blood pressure ( sbp ) and diastolic blood pressure ( dbp ) respectively ( least of 3 readings taken on 1 occasion ) . one - sample kolmogorov - smirnov test used to check normal distribution of quantitative variables . binary logistic regression used to analyze relationship between hypertension status and its risk factors . one - sample kolmogorov - smirnov test used to check normal distribution of quantitative variables . binary logistic regression used to analyze relationship between hypertension status and its risk factors . of 195 persons participated in this study , 180 persons ( 92.3% ) were male . table 1   shows age , duration of employment , weight , height , body mass index ( bmi ) and systolic and blood pressure . only 8 persons ( 5.6% ) were cigarette smokers and 26 persons ( 14.9% ) were hookah smokers . table 3   shows the history of some diseases in participants and first - degree relatives . among hypertensive cases ( 18 persons ) , most of the patients ( 87.0% ) used 1 - 2 cups of tea per day . among participants , only 29 persons ( 15.8% ) attended healthy life style classes . of participants , only 75 persons ( 40.5% ) had normal bmi ( table 4 ) . figure 1   shows classification of blood pressure based on the seventh report of the joint national committee on prevention , detection , evaluation , and treatment of high blood pressure ( jnc 7 category ) ( 14 ) . 
  hypertension status based on jnc7 
 table 5 shows relationship between demographic and other factors among normal , pre - hypertensive and hypertensive groups based on jnc7 categories . 
 
 according to binary logistic regression analysis , ( enter model ) , there was a significant relationship between pre - hypertension or hypertension status with first relatives cardiovascular history ( p= 0.029 ) . however , forward conditional model showed no significant relationship between pre - hypertension or hypertension status and its risk factors . the result of our study showed that only 40.5% of samples had a normal bmi . although overweight and obesity are risk factors of hypertension , diabetes and other ncd , it could be modified by life style intervention such as physical activity promotion . yarahmadi and his colleagues study showed that the prevalence of overweight and obesity was 27.0% and 20.0% respectively ( 1 ) . based on global status report on non - communicable diseases 2010 , the age - adjusted prevalence of overweight in bahrain and egypt was 70.3% and 69.8% respectively . in addition , the age - adjusted prevalence of obesity in bahrain and egypt was 32.6% and 34.6% respectively ( 2 ) . godarzi and his colleagues study showed that the prevalence of obesity in male and female was 64% and 70% in male and female respectively ( 4 ) . demirchi and mehrabani s study showed that the prevalence of overweight and obesity was 26.6% and 40.6% respectively ( 7 ) . sadeqi and her colleagues study showed that the prevalence of bmi > 25 in male and female was 41.9% and 59.0% respectively.(8 ) ahmadi and his colleagues study showed that the prevalence of obesity in hypertensive and control group was 21.7% and 14.2% respectively ( 10 ) . ong and his / her colleagues study showed that the mean of bmi ( se ) was 27.81 ( 0.22 ) , 27.87 ( 0.16 ) and 27.99 ( 0.13 ) in 1999 - 2000 , 2001 - 2002 and 2003 - 2004 respectively based on nhnes database ( 11 ) . 
 
 in 2001 , the prevalence of obesity ( bmi>= 30 ) was 20.9% versus 19.8% in 2000 . saeedi study showed that the prevalence of obesity was 56.5% and 25.0% in diabetic female and male respectively ( 16 ) . mcniece and his / her colleagues ' study showed that the prevalence of overweight was 18.1% in adolescent ( 17 ) . tazi and his colleagues ' study indicated that the prevalence of obesity in non - hypertensive and hypertensive adult was 11.1% and 23.6% respectively . also , the prevalence of overweight in non - hypertensive and hypertensive adult was 24.7% and 32.8% respectively ( 18 ) . fukuda and his / her colleagues ' study showed that the mean bmi ( sd ) of male and female employees was 22.6 ( 2.4 ) and 21.2 ( 2.9 ) respectively ( 19 ) . based on a report from a community - based cohort study in taiwan , mean bmi in normotensive , pre - hypertensive , stage 1 hypertensive and stage 2 hypertensive group were 22 , 23.2 , 24 and 24.3 respectively.(20 ) ( 20 ) steyn and his / her colleagues ' study showed that the prevalence of obesity in male and female adult was 11.1% and 23.6% respectively ( 21 ) . singh and his / her colleagues ' study indicated that the prevalence of overweight and obesity ( bmi>23 kg / m2 ) in normotensive , pre - hypertensive and hypertensive female and male was 14.3% , 82.3% , 83.2% , 16.4% , 70.7% and 71.3% respectively.(22 ) ishikawa and his / her colleagues ' study showed that the mean bmi ( sd ) of normotensive , prehypertensive and hypertensive male and female was 22.0 ( 2.5 ) , 23.0 ( 2.8 ) , 23.8 ( 3.0 ) , 22.1 ( 2.7 ) , 23.3 ( 3.1 ) and 24.3 ( 3.4 ) respectively ( 23 ) . egan and his / her colleagues ' study showed that the prevalence of obesity was 21.8% , 29.5% , 29.6% , 31.4% , 33.4% and 33.2% in 1988 - 1994 , 1999 - 2000 , 2001 - 2002 , 2003 - 2004 , 2005 - 2006 and 2007 - 2008 based on nhnes database respectively ( 24 ) . a prevalence study in iranian military personnel showed that about 20% of participants were overweight ( 25 ) . our results showed that the prevalence of norm tension , prehypertension and hypertension was 47.9% , 40.4% and 11.7% respectively . also , there was a significant difference between cardiovascular diseases and diabetes history and hypertension status based on jnc7 categories . yarahmadi and his colleagues study showed that the prevalence of hypertension was 14.0% in the capital city of 6 big provinces of iran ( 1 ) . based on global status report on non - communicable diseases 2010 , the age - adjusted prevalence of hypertension in bahrain and egypt was 43.7% and 38.1% respectively ( 2 ) . godarzi and his colleagues study showed that the prevalence of hypertension was 13.9% among zabol city adults ( 4 ) . another study showed that the prevalence of hypertension was 24.1% and 24.8% in urban and rural area respectively ( 5 ) . a study on taxi drivers blood pressure showed that the prevalence of hypertension was 35.4% . this study concluded that hypertension prevalence are correlated positively with age increase , physical activity decrease , cardiovascular diseases history , obesity , low level of education , income increase and family member increase ( 7 ) . sadeqi and her colleagues showed that the prevalence of hypertension was 15.6% and 18.8% in male and female respectively . moreover , the prevalence of hypertension was higher in female than in men , except in under 25-year age group ( 8) . gu and his colleagues indicated that the prevalence of hypertension was 27.2% in chinese adult population ( 13 ) . in addition , tazi and his colleagues study showed that the prevalence of hypertension was 37.2% and 41.3% in male and female respectively . also , the prevalence of hypertension was 30.6% , 46.5% and 58.1 in normal , overweight and obese samples respectively . ( 18 ) singh and his / her colleagues study indicated that the prevalence of female and male prehypertension and hypertension in five indian cities was 27.2% , 27.2% , 30.0 and 30.6% respectively ( 22 ) . ishikawa and his / her colleagues study showed that the prevalence of the prevalence of normotension , prehypertension and hypertension was 32.7% , 33.0% ( 34.8% in males and 31.8% in females ) , 34.3% ( 36.8% in males and 32.7% in females ) respectively ( 23 ) . a prevalence study in iranian military personnel showed that 58% and 49.4% of participants had systolic and diastolic pre hypertension respectively . additionally , the prevalence of systolic and diastolic hypertension was 9.4% and 22.2% respectively ( 25 ) . based on mustafavi and zare study the prevalence of hypertension was 66.4% and 10.1% in elderly and young population respectively ( 26 ) . angell et al showed that the prevalence of hypertension among nyc adults was 25.6% ( 95% ci 23.4% to 27.8% ) and was similar for men and women ( men : 25.5 ( 22.528.7 ) , female : 26.0 ( 23.528.8 ) ) ( 27 ) . kearney and his / her colleagues study indicated that 26.4% of the adult population in 2000 had hypertension ( 26.6% of men and 26.1% of women ) , and 29.2% were projected to have this condition by 2025 ( 29.0% of men and 29.5% of women ) ( 28 ) 
 
 based on nhanes database in united states , the prevalence of hypertension was 24.5% and 28.4% in 1988 - 1994 and 1999 - 2000 respectively.(11 , 13 , 24 , 29 , 30 ) also , the prevalence of hypertension was 26.0% and 29.3% in 2001 - 2002 and 2003 - 2004 respectively ( 11 , 24 , 29 ) . 
 
 based on jaipur heart watch in india , the prevalence of hypertension in jhw - r , jhw-1 , jhw-2 , jhw-3 and jhw-4 studies in men was 21.6% , 29.1% , 29.6% , 42.5% and 45.1% and in women 15.7% , 21.7% , 25.5% , 35.2% and 38.2% respectively ( 31 ) . a survey by wolf - maier and colleagues showed that the age- and sex - adjusted prevalence of hypertension was 28.0% in north american countries and 44.0% in the european countries based on jnc7 categories ( 32 ) . based on global status report on non - communicable diseases 2010 , the age - adjusted prevalence of current daily cigarette smoking in bahrain and egypt was 14.3% and 16.5% respectively ( 2 ) . godarzi and his colleagues showed that the prevalence of tobacco and cigarette smoking in male and female was 36.0% and 15.0% respectively ( 4 ) . sadeqi and her colleagues study showed that the prevalence of current daily cigarette smoking in male and female was 29.0% and 1.6% respectively ( 8) . based on ahmadi and his colleagues study , the prevalence of current daily cigarette smoking in hypertensive and normal population was 9.4% and 14.2% respectively ( 10 ) . tazi and his colleagues showed that the prevalence of current smoking in non - hypertensive and hypertensive samples was 16.4% and 9.1% respectively ( 18 ) . based on a report from a community - based cohort study in taiwan , the prevalence of smoking in normal blood pressure , pre - hypertensive , stage 1 hypertensive and stage 2 hypertensive men was 72.1% , 69.9% , 70.1% and 75.4% respectively . these percentages in women were 5.3% , 3.8% , 7.0% and 6.5% respectively ( 20 ) 
 
 based on singh and his colleagues study , the prevalence of tobacco use in normotension , prehypertension and hypertension group of men and women was 35.7% , 30.5% , 30.8% , 9.2% , 10.2% and 10.7% respectively ( 22 ) . 
 
 based on the jichi medical school cohort study , the prevalence of current smoking in normotension , prehypertension and hypertension group was 57.2% , 51.1% and 44.4% respectively ( 23 ) . based on jaipur heart watch in india , the prevalence of smoking in jhw - r , jhw-1 , jhw-2 , jhw-3 and jhw-4 studies in men were 50.0% , 38.7% , 35.7% , 27.1% and 59.9% respectively ( 31 ) . despite the low prevalence of hypertension in our samples , the high prevalence of prehypertension and overweight needs great attention . interventions like lifestyle education , life style modification such as increasing time of physical activity programs per week , dietary modification and low caloric diet and avoiding junk and fast foods could be effective .
background hypertension is a risk factor for life threatening diseases such as cerebrovascular accidents , coronary artery diseases , congestive heart failure and chronic renal failure . 
 the prevalence of non - communicable diseases such as hypertension and diabetes including obesity has increased over the past few years in iran . 
 the first step for modification of cardiovascular diseases in a defined population is to assess the prevalence of their risk factors . 
 this study was conduceted to assess personnel blood pressure and its risk factors in one of the medical universities of tehran in the health day of 2013 . 
 methods : this cross sectional study was performed from may 19 , 2013 to may 24 , 2013 ( i.r . of iran s health weak ) in one of the medical universities of tehran . 
 participants completed voluntarily a researcher - made questionnaire which composed of demographic characteristics and variables about risk factors and preventive factors of cardiovascular diseases such as smoking , history of diabetes , history of hypertension , physical exercise status and so on . 
 blood pressure was measured by mercury sphygmomanometer and weight and height were measured by a ground analogue scale . 
 results : of 195 persons participated in this study , 180 persons ( 92.3% ) were male . 
 the mean age of participants was 33.75 ( 9.87 ) yr . 
 the mean of systolic and diastolic blood pressure was 114.44 ( 8.67 ) mmhg and 73.06 ( 8.45 ) mmhg , respectively . 
 the prevalence of overweight , obesity , prehypertension and hypertension was 41.7% , 17.8% , 40.4% and 11.7% respectively . only 8 persons ( 5.6% ) were cigarette smokers . 
 conclusion : despite the low prevalence of hypertension in our samples , the high prevalence of prehypertension and overweight need great attention . 
 interventions like life style modification could be effective in prevention of hypertension .