Background: Sustainable and aggressive population-based programmes on hypertension awareness, prevention, treatment and control are key to the successful control of this epidemic. The objective of the study was to determine to what extent hypertension and risk factors for its development were prevalent in the Kang village community in Botswana, and specifically to assess its prevalence in the adult population and its relationship with high blood pressure, anthropometric measures and lifestyle factors, i.e. diet and the use of tobacco products and alcohol.

Method: A population-based cross-sectional study was conducted on 161 adult residents of Kang aged 18 years and older from November to December 2008. A questionnaire adapted from the World Health Organization stepwise approach to the surveillance of chronic disease was used for the data collection.

Results: The prevalence of hypertension in the adult population of Kang was found to be 32% (95% confidence interval: 25-40). There was no significant sex difference in the prevalence rate in men (28%) versus women (34%), (p = 0.59). Hypertension was more prevalent in the overweight group than in the normal-weight group (p = 0.3), in the obese group than in the normal-weight group (p = 0.002), and in the obese group than in the overweight group (p = 0.04).

Conclusion: This study showed that hypertension affected almost a third of the adult population of Kang, and was significantly associated with overweight and obesity.