Background: Obesity and hypertension are undesirable outcomesof changing lifestyles and behaviours especially intraditional societies in many developing countries which haveexperienced rapid and unplanned urbanization.Objective: To know the prevalence of obesity and hypertensionin an urban adult population of Salem, Tamilnadu.Materials and Methods: An observational cross-sectional studyin the Salem town of Tamilnadu was carried out by using a predesignedand a pretested schedule. 10 hospitals of the Salemtown were selected randomly, after making a list of all thehospitals. Every 10th adult patient was selected in the hospitalOPD clinic, till the number reached 30 during a 2 week duration.Consent was taken before the study. 263 respondents (94females and 169 males) were selected for the analysis out of300 adults. The Epi Info software was used for the analysis. TheChi-square test, t test and the Pearson's correlation tests wereused for studying the significance.Results: The age range was 18 to 85 years; the majority (79.8%)was above 35 years of age. The waist circumference (WC) waspositively correlated with the body mass index (BMI) and thesystolic blood pressure. Females had a significantly higherBMI value than the males. Based on the internationally recommendedBMI cut-off points, 44.9% respondents were found tobe pre-obese and 19.0% were obese. The estimated risk forthe females to have an increased metabolic risk was 9.4 timesthat of the males. 60.8% persons had abdominal fat accumulation,based on the waist to hip ratio. 43.3% persons werehypertensive. A significantly higher proportion of males wereseverely hypertensive than the females.Conclusion: The females were at an increased risk of obesity,but the males were at increased risk of hypertension. Age wasfound to be a stronger risk factor for obesity and hypertension. © 2011 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.