Prevalência de fatores de risco para doenças cardiovasculares entre escolares em Londrina - PR: diferenças entre classes econômicas Prevalence of risk factors for cardiovascular diseases among students of Londrina - PR: Differences between economic classes

Abstract Objective: To analyze and compare the pre-valence of cardiovascular risk factors among school students of different economic con-ditions. Methods: A total of 1,021 adoles-cents were analyzed. Subjects were weighed and had their height, waist circumference and blood pressure measured. Both physical activity and economic condition (low and high) were reported. Results were analyzed through frequencies of variables and the chi-square test. Results: A lower prevalence of physical inactivity (p < 0.001) and higher prevalences of abdominal obesity (p = 0.038) and overweight (p = 0.010) were observed among adolescents of high economic class. No differences regarding high blood pressure were observed among adolescents of low and high economic classes. When cardiovascular risk factors were aggregated, the prevalence of one and two factors was also higher among high economic class ado-lescents. Conclusion: With the exception of physical inactivity and high blood pressure, the prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors was higher among high economic status adolescents.