Abstract: ObjectiveTo explore the risk factors of essential hypertension(EH)among university staff and to lay a foundation for etiological study and prevention of EH.MethodsA population of faculty from an university in Wuhan was selected as the subjects to conduct a group matched case-control study(case=1892,control=1860).All subjects were interviewed with a questionnaire and measured for blood pressure,height,weight and investigated for risk factors of life style (smoking and alcohol drinking).ResultsThe frequency of overweight,obesity,history of diabetes,taking physical excercise three times or more a week,hyperglycosemia,high blood urea nitrogen,and hyperuricacidemia in the case group was 48.0%,16.1%,8.5%,34.0%,28.2%,16.1%,and 21.3%,and 40.6%,8.0%,3.1%,29.9%,19.5%,11.0%,and 12.3% in the control group,respectively.There were significant differences in the variables between the tw o groups(P< 0.01 for all).However,there were no significant differences in smoking,alcohol drinking,total cholesterol,and triglyeride (P>0.05 for all).The results of multivariant logistic regression showed that obesity,history of diabetes,hyperglycosemia, high blood urea nitrogen,and hyperuricacidemia were risk factors of essential hypertension after adjusting for confoundigng factors.ConclusionThe university staff with obesity,history of diabetes,hyperglycosemia,high blood urea nitrogen,and hyperuricacidemia are susceptive to essential hypertension.