Introduction and objective: Obesity is one of the main causes of blood pressure. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the optimal sex- and age-specific cut-off points of anthropometric indices, including body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC), hip circumference (HC), wrist circumference (WrC), waist-hip ratio (WHR), and waist-height ratio (WHtR), for screening hypertension (HTN) in a cohort of Iranian adults aged ۳۵ to ۷۰ years, as well as to compare the predictive performance of the indices based on receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves.Methods: We conducted this population-based study on the individuals aged ۳۵ to ۷۰ years of the Bandare-Kong Non-Communicable Diseases (BKNCD) Cohort Study, a part of the Prospective Epidemiological Research Studies in IrAN (PERSIAN). Optimal sex- and age-specific cut-off points of the anthropometric indices associated with HTN were estimated, by utilizing the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) and Youden’s J index.Results: A total of ۲۲۵۶ females and ۱۷۲۲ males enrolled in this study. HTN was observed in ۷۳۶ females (۳۲.۶%) and ۵۴۴ males (۳۱.۶%). In males and females, the optimal cut-off of WC for HTN was ۹۰ cm and ۹۵ cm, with an area under the ROC curve (AUROC) of ۰.۶۰ and ۰.۶۴, respectively. For HC, a ۹۵ cm cut-off was optimal for males and ۱۰۸ cm for females (AUROC=۰.۵۴ for both). Furthermore, WrC optimal cut-offs were ۱۷ cm for males (AUROC=۰.۵۶) and ۱۵ cm for females (AUROC=۰.۵۷). Regarding BMI, the optimal cut-off was ۲۵ kg/m۲ in males and ۲۷ kg/m۲ in females (AUROC of ۰.۵۹ and ۰.۶۰, respectively). In addition, ۰.۹۲ was the optimal cut-off for WHR in males (AUROC=۰.۶۴) and ۰.۹۶ in females (AUROC=۰.۶۷). Also, the optimal cut-offs for WHtR were ۰.۵۲ for males and ۰.۶۰ for females (AUROC ۰.۶۳ and ۰.۶۵, respectively).Conclusions: WHR and WHtR were shown to be significant predictors of HTN as anthropometric indices of obesity. In addition, we recommend using WHR (cut-off point of ۰.۹۲ for males and ۰.۹۶ for females) and WHtR (cut-off point of ۰.۵۲ for males and ۰.۶۰ for females) as measures of preference for the prediction of HTN in southern Iranians. ultimately, we suggested more multicenter longitudinal studies for a more accurate prediction of HTN.