A Cross-Sectional Study of Association between Blood Pressure and Body Mass Index in School Children Aged 11 – 15 Years

Abstract

Background: High blood pressure in childhood and adolescence is a global public health problem and is often overlooked. It generally remains undiagnosed and untreated. The present study intended to find the association between blood pressure and body mass index among children aged 11 to 15 years. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 953 school children aged 11 to 15 years. The study was conducted between January 2020 and July 2020 after obtaining clearance from an institutional ethics committee. Weight and height were measured by standard methods and BMI was calculated. Blood pressure was measured using mercury sphygmomanometer and more than 95th centile for age, sex and height was considered to have hypertension. Results: In this study 953 school children were studied. Out of these 489 children were males and 464 were females. Children (25.7 %) were either overweight or obese. 197 (20.7 %) had an elevated blood pressure. The proportion of children with stage 1 and stage 2 hypertension was 6.1 % and 1.6 % respectively. 53.9 % of the overweight / obese children had more than normal blood pressure. There was a statistically significant relationship between blood pressure and BMI. Conclusions: The present study indicates that BMI is an important factor affecting BP levels in children. Simple anthropometric assessment to determine BMI in schools would help in predicting the risk of developing hypertension. This will help in reducing the morbidity and mortality associated with hypertension in adults.