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Blood pressure among overweight adolescents from urban school children in Pune, India

European Journal of Clinical Nutrition volume 61, pages 633–641 (2007)Cite this article

Abstract

Objectives:

To examine the magnitude of overweight and its association with blood pressure (BP) among adolescents.

Design:

Cross-sectional study with all children in age range 9–16 years (n=1146 boys and 1077 girls) from two schools catering to urban affluent high socio-economic class (HSE), for anthropometric measurements by trained investigators and BP measurement by a pediatrician using sphygmomanometer.

Results:

The prevalence of overweight based on conventional body mass index (BMI) cutoff was 27.5% for boys and 20.9% for girls but varied for different indicators. Prevalence of high systolic blood pressure (HSBP) was 12.0% in boys and 9.7% in girls and increased with increasing levels of BMI, weight, triceps skin fold thickness (TSFT) and percent body fat. Mean level of SBP among overweight children was significantly (P<0.001) higher by about 12 mm Hg, whereas that for diastolic blood pressure was higher by 8 mm Hg (P<0.001) as compared to their non-overweight (age, sex-matched) counterparts. This was true in both sexes and for all indicators used for assessing overweight. Prevalence of HSBP increased suddenly beyond BMI value of 20 kg/m2 in boys and 21.5 kg/m2 in girls, beyond TSFT value of 12 mm for boys and 14 mm for girls whereas such cutoffs for body fat were above 25% in both sexes. These cutoffs appear much lower than the conventional ones and therefore indicate the need for validation of conventional cutoffs in different populations.

Conclusions:

Our findings highlight that BP measurement needs to be a routine part of physical examination in school children, and the use of cutoffs anchored to metabolic risks may be essential for assessment of obesity.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to Dr VS Rao, Director, ARI, for encouraging and providing the facilities to carry out this work in the institute. We greatly appreciate the help of other staff members in the Department during data collection.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Biometry and Nutrition Group, Agharkar Research Institute, G G Agarkar Road, Pune, 411 004, India

    S Rao, A Kanade & R Kelkar

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  1. S Rao
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  2. A Kanade
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  3. R Kelkar
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Correspondence to S Rao.

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Rao, S., Kanade, A. & Kelkar, R. Blood pressure among overweight adolescents from urban school children in Pune, India. Eur J Clin Nutr 61, 633–641 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.ejcn.1602555

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