Aim:
The aim of the study was to demonstrate the potential association between the rs1421085 polymorphism of the FTO gene and the incidence of hypertension and overweight and obesity in consecutive patients reporting to a primary care physician in a Public Health Centre.

Materials and methods:
The study included a total of 391 patients from the area of southern Poland, who in turn reported to the Public Health Centre. The patients were divided into 3 groups based on their waist circumference score (control group, group of overweight patients and obese patients). Genotyping was carried out using a fluorescently labeled probe and readily prepared single nucleotide polymorphism kits – TaqMan Pre-designed SNP Genotyping Assay (Applied Biosystems). For statistical analysis we used the Statistica 9.0 program.

Results:
The prevalence of overweight and obesity judged by the waist circumference score was 71.35%, for 24.04% of which constituted overweight people and 47.31% the obese. In the serum of overweight and obese people statistically significant higher levels of glucose concentration, insulin, mean arterial pressure and lipid profile components were found in comparison to the people from the control group (p < 0.001). In the control group no genotype showed a correlation with a higher average systolic pressure – statistically expressed as p ≥ 0.05. In the overweight and obese groups, homozygotes for the T allele exhibit a higher average systolic pressure than the other genotypes (p < 0.05).

Conclusions:
1. Polymorphism rs1421085 of the FTO gene does not show a statistically significant correlation with the prevalence of overweight and obesity in the population of southern Poland. 2. The probability of exhibiting hypertension in a person who is a TT homozygote within the rs1421085 polymorphism is statistically significantly higher than in other genotypes, in overweight or obese subjects.