Prevalence of prehypertension and hypertension among jenukuruba tribal children in Mysore district

Introduction: Hypertension is a major public health problem found to have origin very early in life but remains asymptomatic warranting screening of all children. Objective: To study the prevalence of Pre hypertension and Hypertension among traditional Jenukuruba tribal children in Mysore district. Methods: Community based cross sectional study done over a period of 2 years from. About 3864 children between the age group of 2-15 years of Jenukuruba tribal community were enrolled in the study. Anthropometric measurements were recorded. Weight for age, Height for age and BMI were calculated. Blood pressure recording was done by research assistants and classified using American Heart Association fourth task force recommendations. Results: The point prevalence of systolic prehypertension and hypertension among tribal children between 2-15 years was 6.9% and 2.3% respectively and the point prevalence of diastolic prehypertension and hypertension was 9.6% and 4.1% respectively. Conclusion: The prevalence of pre hypertension and hypertension in tribal children is similar and comparable to urban population.