256A STUDY OF PREVALENCE AND RISK FACTORS OF HYPERTENSION AMONG THE BANK EMPLOYEES OF BELLARY CITY: A CROSS-SECTIONAL STUDYDecreased physical activities coupled with increased mental stress are contributors of hypertension. They are commonly seen amongst employees of the profession where working is sedentary and is accompanied by high level of mental stress. Bank employees fit in this picture and there is a need for study regarding the prevalence of hypertension for bank employees in order to educate them about prevention and life style modification for hypertension. Objectives to study of prevalence and risk factors of hypertension among the bank employees of Bellary city. A cross-sectional study was conducted in a setting of banks of Bellary city, Karnataka. The required sample size was calculated to be 290. A stratified random sampling was adopted where in first the banks were stratified into three groups- Corporate banks, Co-operative society banks and Nationalized banks. Within each strata bank employees were sampled based on population proportionate sampling method. Information on socio-demographic variables, family history of diabetes and hypertension, dietary patterns, level of physical activity, mental stress scoring, habits and anthropometric measurements and recording of blood pressure was done and the data was analysed using SPSS software version 16. The prevalence of hypertension among bank employees of Bellary city was found to be 48.5%. Socio-demographic factors like increasing age, married individuals, males and habitual factors like current alcohol consumers, current tobacco smokers and employees with lack of physical activity, overweight/obese, severe stress, and family history of diabetes mellitus had statistically significant association with hypertension. High prevalence of hypertension was observed among the bank employees and it was higher among employees with lack of physical activity, overweight/obese, severe stress, and family history of diabetes mellitus and who were current tobacco smokers and alcoholicsbellararaghu@gmail.comResearch572015Hypertension,Prevalence,Risk factors,Bank employeesRaghavendra Nagammanavar,Somashekhar G,Chippagiri Sai Prasad Reddy,Pavan Kumar,Bellara Raghavendra Associate Professor, Department of General Medicine, Vijayanagara Institute of Medical Sciences, Bellary, Karnataka, India.,Assistant Professor, Department of General Medicine, Vijayanagara Institute of Medical Sciences, Bellary, Karnataka, India.,Senior Resident Medical Officer, R K Hospital, Bellary, Karnataka, India, Post Graduate Department of Community Medicine, Vijayanagara Institute of Medical Sciences, Bellary, Karnataka, India.,Associate Professor, Department of Community Medicine, Vijayanagara Institute of Medical Sciences, Bellary, Karnataka, India.