Abstract

GONZALEZ SANCHEZ, Raquel et al. Hypertension and obesity in school children aged 5 to 11 years. Rev Cubana Pediatr [online]. 2013, vol.85, n.4, pp.418-427. ISSN 0034-7531.

Introduction: primary hypertension and obesity are diseases that have been on increase in the last few years; however, they are not often perceived as a health problem in childhood. Objective: to determine the relation of obesity to hypertension in children and adolescents aged 5 to 11 years from an elementary school. Methods: a cross-sectional and observational study of 310 children aged 5 to 11 years from an elementary school in Plaza municipality, La Habana province, was performed. The studied variables were age, sex, weight, height, waist, hip and blood pressure figures. SPSS program served to process data that were later summarized in tables by using percentages for the quantitative variables and Chi-square and Fisher's exact test for the qualitative ones. Results: nineteen children (6.1 %) were hypertensive and 13 (4.2 %) were pre-hypertensive whereas 42 (13.5 %) were obese and 39 (12.6) overweighed. In the obese group, 23.8% had high blood pressure and 52.6 % of children with hypertension suffered obesity. Of the children with central obesity, 14.8 % showed high blood pressure figures and 42.1 % of the hypertensive children had central obesity. Obesity and overweight, measured according to body mass index, were significantly related to hypertension (p= 0.011). Conclusions: overweight and obesity frequently appeared during the first years of life and related to hypertension.

Keywords : obesity; blood hypertension; children.

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