Prevalence of prehypertension and hypertension among primary and secondary schools adolescents in AL Diwaniya province

Abstract

Abstract High blood pressure in children and adolescents is a growing health problem that is often overlooked by doctors. Hypertension in children can progress into adulthood and contributing to the increase in the cardiovascular morbidity and mortality in adults. To determine the prevalence of prehypertension and hypertension among primary and secondary schools adolescents in Al Diwaniya province.also to determine the association between hypertension and BMI for age in both genders in the adolescents. A cross sectional study was conducted on adolescents from primary and secondary schools in Al Diwaniya province from November 2014 to march 2015. A total of 754 students was participated in the study,of them 387 males and 367 females between age 10-18 years. Subjects with a history of disease,including diabetes,heart disease,kidney disease,gastrointestinal disease,or use of any medications,were excluded from the study. Data about age, sex, height, weight, BMI, systolic blood pressure and diastolic blood pressure were collected. We classified BMI into 4 categories (underweight,normal,overweight, obese )according to specific tables chart as we did with blood pressure which classified into 3 categories (normal, prehypertension,hypertension ). Mean SBP (111.4mmHg ± 11.8) and DBP (64.5mmHg ± 9.1) in males were (111.9mmHg±10.9) and (63.9mmHg±8.9) and in females were (111mmHg±12.6) and (65.1mmHg ±9.2) respectively. With no statistically significant differences between them. The prevalence of overweight and obesity were (15.1% and 6.5% respectively ) it was higher in females (16.3% and 8.7%) than males (14% and 4.4%) respectively. The prevalence of prehypertension and hypertension were 15.5% and 4.9% respectively again it was higher in females (16.6% and 6.8%) than males (14.5% and 3.1%) respectively. There was significant association between hypertension and BMI in both genders, 45.9% from hypertensive adolescents were obese (25% males,56% females ), p-value < 0.0005.]2[ High prevalence of prehypertension and hypertension among adolescents, it was more common in females than in males, there were strong association between blood pressure and BMI.