Abstract
Hypertension is a leading contributor to the disease burden worldwide. Hypertension is usually regarded as a condition prevalent in adults and also most prevention and control strategies target adults. The long, steady and slow course of hypertension in adults also suggests that it perhaps had its origin in childhood, but had probably gone undiagnosed during this period, only to manifest itself during adulthood. The prevalence of childhood hypertension varies worldwide from 1-12%. In India, the data on prevalence of childhood shows prevalence ranging from 1% to 8.5%. Therefore, there is need for proper strategies to evaluate and assess hypertension in childhood so that there can be early interventions which might prevent further cardiovascular events in future. Obesity is identified as the most important risk factor affecting blood pressure (BP) distribution in children. Epidemiological studies have linked hypertension in children to various adiposity indicators. So early diagnosis of essential hypertension helping in early interventions thus decreasing the cardiovascular diseases load on the nation. In our study the prevalence of prehypertension and hypertension was found to be 11.9%(n=149) and 6.3%(n=79). Prevalence of hypertension increased with increase in age from 5.2% in 13-14 years children to 6.7% in children of 15-16 years age group(p=0.002).
Published Version
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