Screening for Blood Pressure and Excess Malnutrition in Children From a Public School in Southern Ecuador

Abstract

Background: it has been documented that children with overweight and obesity have higher risk of non-communicable chronic diseases such as arterial hypertension. Objective: Understand the possible association between nutritional status and blood pressure in 391 children ages 6 to 12 years of age who attend an urban public school in Loja, Ecuador. For this purpose, blood pressure and nutritional status screening was conducted. Materials and Methods: The sample comprised 391 children between 6 and 12 years old, recruited from an urban school in Loja, Ecuador. Blood pressure and nutritional status screening was performed. Results: For systolic blood pressure, 2.6% of the sample had high values and 3.1% presented with hypertension; for diastolic BP, 1.5% presented with high values and 3.8% with hypertension. No difference by sex was found in any of the types of blood pressure measured (p>0.05). As assessed by BMI, 18.7% of participants were overweight and 11.3% obese, with a tendency for higher BMI in males (p=0.05). An association was found between excess weight (overweight and obesity) and high blood pressure (high blood pressure values plus hypertension) in the systolic (p=0.00), but not in the diastolic (p=0.80). Conclusions: The risk of developing high blood pressure increases with overweight and obesity in children 6 to 12 years old.