Introduction:

rheumatic diseases are a group of conditions that are characterized by the presence, usually, of pain, inflammation, deformity, functional disability and decreased perception of quality of life related to health. Cardiovascular complications are frequent in the course of these diseases; Nutritional disorders may be the cause or consequence of these complications.

Objective:

to determine the relationship between body adiposity and blood pressure in children and adolescents with rheumatic diseases.

Methodology:

descriptive, cross-sectional study in 45 patients with rheumatic diseases diagnosed according to the criteria of the American College of Reumathology. The bioimpedance technique was used to determine the percentage of body fat and Pearson's correlation index to determine the relationship between variables.

Results:

average age of 12.26 ± 8.74 years, predominance of female patients (68.69 %) and between 15 and 18 years of age (42.22 %). The most represented rheumatic disease was juvenile idiopathic arthritis (46.67 %). Patients with increased fat percentage predominated, where overweight (44.44 %) and obesity (20.0 %) were the most represented. 20.0 % of the patients included in the investigation presented alterations in blood pressure, predominantly in obese patients (33.33 %) and overweight (20.0 %).

Conclusions:

Maintaining adequate control of body adiposity considerably reduces the possibility of the appearance of blood pressure disorders. The electric bioimpedance is a method of easy application and proven effectiveness to determine the percentage of fat.

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