Context: Hypertension is considered to be a lifestyle disorder with previous studies showing a direct association between salt intake and hypertension, also between overweight, obesity and hypertension. Aims: To assess the amount of salt intake in normotensive and hypertensive subjects 2. To determine whether the association between salt intake and blood pressure is correlated by body mass index. Settings and Design: A community based crosssectional descriptive study. Methods and Material: House to house enumeration survey among 1347 individuals was conducted from September 2016- June 2017 and from adults in the enumeratedhouses, information on sociodemographic factors and salt intake were collected and the blood pressure, height, weight were measured by standard protocols. Statistical analysis used: Quantitative variables were summarised using mean and standard deviation, qualitative variables were summarised using frequency percentage. Partial correlation was used to find the association of BMI in Salt intake and blood pressure. Results: The mean age group of our study population was 33.64 (+19.53) years and majority (53.4%) of them were females. The mean Body Mass Index (BMI) was 25.33 + 5.57 and 23.4 % had high BMI. Theaverage salt intake of our study population was 10.87 + 6.57 gms/day. The association between salt intake and prehypertension is mediated by high BMI with a significant correlation coefficient of 0.33. Conclusions: The association between salt intake and blood pressure is related to body weight and measures on weight reduction especially among prehypertensive and high salt in takers will help toreduce further complications.

Keywords: Salt intake; Blood pressure; Body mass index.