Pressão arterial elevada, excesso de peso e obesidade abdominal em crianças e adolescentes

This study was to investigate the frequency of elevated blood pressure in boys and girls aged 10-16 years, and its association with overweight and abdominal obesity. A total of 764 children and adolescents (365 boys and 399 girls) from five public schools of Curitiba City had their height, weight, waist circumference, resting systolic and diastolic blood pressure measured. Body mass index (kg/m2) was classified in accordance with national reference, for age and gender. Student T-test, Chi-squared Test were calculated. For all analysis, the level of significance was set at p<0,05. Elevated blood pressure and overweight, respectively, were frequent in 18,6% and 30,8% of the students, similarly between genders (p≥0,05). The abdominal obesity was in 33,1%.In this study the prevalence of high blood pressure shows a factor to be investigated.