TY - JOUR AU - Shyna KP, AU - Divya Krishnan K, AU - Santhosh Kumar K K, AU - Riyaz A, PY - 2022/01/16 Y2 - 2024/03/29 TI - A Cross Sectional Study of Blood Pressure Profile in Adolescent School Children of North Kerala JF - International Journal of Health and Clinical Research JA - Int. J. Heal. Clin. Res. VL - 5 IS - 1 SE - Articles DO - UR - https://ijhcr.com/index.php/ijhcr/article/view/4573 SP - 491-493 AB - <p>Background: Cardiovascular Diseases (CVDs) are a major public health problem and hypertension is considered as an important risk factor for the development of CVDs. The prevalence of hypertension in children and adolescents seems to be increasing and it is often undiagnosed. We conducted this study with the aim of determining the prevalence of hypertension and its association with selected anthropometric variables in adolescent school children. Method: This cross-sectional study was conducted in adolescent school children aged between 12 and 16 years. Blood pressure was measured in participants between 9am and 11am in sitting position after 10 minutes of rest with an appropriately sized cuff. Three measurements were taken at an interval of five minutes each and the mean of these readings were taken as average systolic and diastolic blood pressure. Hypertension is taken as systolic and /or diastolic blood pressure &gt;95th percentile for gender, age and height and prehypertension as 90-95th percentile and &lt;90th percentile as normal blood pressure. Results: In this study 882 school children aged between 12 and 16 years were included and out of them 460 were males (52.2 %) and 422 were females (47.8 %). Based on Body mass index (BMI) 47 of them were underweight, 596 were normal weight, 239 were overweight / obese. Among them 613 (69.5 %) were having normal blood pressure, 197 (22.3%) were having elevated BP, 57 (6.5 %) were having stage 1 hypertension and 15 (1.7%) were having stage 2 hypertension.Conclusion: The prevalence of prehypertension and hypertension in school children is increasing in our community and BMI was found to have a significant association with elevated blood pressure. Regular screening of adolescent school children and detection of prehypertension through specific school health programme and early intervention is an urgent need to prevent hypertension and related comorbidities in young population.</p> ER -