Prevalência de pressão arterial elevada em crianças e adolescentes do ensino fundamental

• Autor(a) principal: Rinaldi, Ana Elisa M.
• Data de Publicação: 2012
• Outros Autores: Nogueira, Paulo Cesar Koch [UNIFESP], Riyuzo, Márcia Camegaçava, Olbrich-Neto, Jaime, Gabriel, Gleice Fernanda C. P., Macedo, Célia Sperandéo [UNIFESP], Burini, Roberto Carlos
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Repositório Institucional da UNIFESP
• Texto Completo: http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/S0103-05822012000100012; http://repositorio.unifesp.br/handle/11600/6899
• topic: hypertension; pre-hypertension; child; adolescent; obesity; hipertensão; pré-hipertensão; criança; adolescente; obesidade

OBJECTIVE: To assess the prevalence of elevated blood pressure in schoolchildren and adolescents and the association of blood pressure with anthropometric measures. METHODS: This cross-sectional study, conducted in three schools in Botucatu, Brazil, collected blood pressure (BP) measurements taken at three different time points and anthropometric data: weight, height, body mass index (BMI), arm circumference, waist circumference, triceps and subscapular skinfolds. Blood pressure was measured using the auscultation method, and children were classified into two groups: pre-hypertension or hypertension for values between the 90th and 95th percentiles or above the 95th percentile. Data were compared according to sex using the Student's t test. The Pearson correlation coefficient was used to evaluate the association between blood pressure and anthropometric data. To evaluate blood pressure, the Z score according to BMI percentile categories, one-factor analysis of variance (ANOVA) and the Tukey post hoc test were used. RESULTS: This study evaluated 903 children and adolescents (51.7% boys) whose mean age was 9.3±2.5 years. The prevalence of pre-hypertension and hypertension was 9.1% and 2.9%. There was a positive correlation between both systolic and diastolic blood pressure and anthropometric variables, especially for weight (r=0.53 and r=0.45, p<0.05) and waist circumference (r=0.50 and r=0.38, p<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of elevated blood pressure in this study was similar to what has been reported in international and national studies. A positive correlation with abnormal anthropometric measures was found. These results suggest that overweight affects blood pressure already in childhood.