Hypertension and Its Correlates Among School Adolescents in Delhi

BACKGROUND: Hypertension is fast emerging as a major health problem amongst all school adolescents, particularly in urban areas. Regular screening of the students for this is required for preventing the emergence of complications later in life. Therefore, the present study was undertaken with the objective to determine the prevalence of hypertension amongst urban school adolescents and its correlation with anthropometric measurements. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted in a school in Central Delhi involving all 315 students of 9(th) and 11(th) standard. A preforma was filled by the students and anthropometric measurements along with blood pressure (BP) measurements were taken for each student. Data was analyzed using Epi-info 2005 and SPSS 16.0. RESULTS: Out of the total 315 students, 208 (66%) were boys and 107 (34%) were girls and the mean age was 14.31 ± 0.96 years. Overall prevalence of malnutrition was 24% and boys were found to be more obese as compared to girls. There were 5 students (1.6%) who were found to have systolic hypertension while 17 (5.4%) were found to have diastolic hypertension while 4.1% (n = 13) of the participants were systolic pre-hypertensive and 26% (n = 82) were in stage of diastolic pre-hypertension. Body mass index and gender were found to be independent predictor for systolic hypertension. CONCLUSIONS: Prevalence of hypertension and pre-hypertension was high amongst the school children. BP check-up for children and adolescents is thus recommended to take remedial action on time.