Introduction:

hypertension as obesity is considered a health problem worldwide. In recent years, this situation has increased in childhood. There is a close inverse correlation between the dietary intake of magnesium, or in its supplementation, and blood pressure levels. In hypertension, there is a presence of reactive oxygen species, as well as, antioxidant defenses may be affected.

Objectives:

to evaluate the manifestation of magnesium concentrations in pre-hypertensive, hypertensive and obese school-age children.

Methods:

a cross-sectional descriptive study was carried out. The sample consisted of 501 infants (8-11 years old), which were classified according to: blood pressure values at rest, gender, skin color and body mass index. The determinations of magnesium were made using flame atomic absorption spectrometry. Mann-Whitney U and Student's T Tests were used to compare groups with a significance level of p <0.05.

Results:

there were no differences in magnesium concentrations in the total group of children. Female pre-hypertensive and hypertensive white children aged 9 years showed a significant decrease in magnesium concentrations. Normal-weight hypertensive males had a significant difference in magnesium concentrations in relation to normotensive ones. No significant difference in magnesium concentrations was found when studying the body mass index.

Conclusions:

magnesium concentrations were decreased in pre-hypertensive, hypertensive or obese children for certain age groups, gender and skin color.