Body Mass Index and Hypertension in Adolescents

Abstract

The ongoing rise in the prevalence of Pre-hypertension & hypertension in adolescent is considered to be accompanied with the childhood overweight and obesity. Body Mass Index is one of the indicators which positively correlate with the hypertension (HTN) in adolescents. The study was conducted to establish prevalence of HTN in adolescents with Body Mass Index (BMI). The study was conducted in 450 adolescents children from the age 10 to 19 yrs. range. Blood Pressure and Anthropometric data were collected and analysed. Result: Our Result shows that 9.8% Patient were at risk of overweight and 1.6% were overweight with striking feature that 14.6% early adolescents were overweight. 10.8% of adolescent female and 11.7% males were having BMI more than Normal. Prevalence of Pre-hypertension and hypertension were 7% and 5.60% respectively. Pre-hypertension and hypertension were more prevalent (19.6% & 27.4%) in adolescents having BMI ≥ 85 percentile for the age and sex then adolescents having BMI below 85th percentile. (5.5%, 2.8%) Conclusion: By our study we can conclude that the prevalence of Pre HTN and HTN is directly related to Body Mass Index (BMI). Overweight and obesity may give rise to pre HTN and HTN and should be considered as an alarming feature, and in turn we can prevent prevalence of Essential HTN in adults. Intervention at this age by change in the life style at the earliest can be of greater help. Reduction in the intake of High calorie Diet like Junk Food and initiation of exercise, Meditation and Yoga to the Borderline adolescent will definitely decrease the incidence of HTN. Further study is required to establish direct relation of BMI and HTN so as to prepare useful charts and tables. [Joshi H NJIRM 2014; 5(5):100-105]