ABSTRACT
Exposure to cardiovascular risk factors during childhood may be associated with the development of atherosclerosis later in life. To determine blood pressure, body mass index and waist circumference in school going children of Karachi. A descriptive cross sectional study was conducted in schools of Karachi. Children from randomly selected public and private sector schools, aged between 8-14 years were included. Height, weight, body mass index, waist circumference and blood pressure of each child were recorded. All children with raised blood pressure were re-evaluated and their detailed history and physical examination was carried out. Of the total 500 children, 41[8.2%] were over weight, [23[9.2%] boys and 18 [7.2%] girls] and 33[6.6%] were obese [21 [8.4%] boys and 12[4.8%] girls]. Waist percentile > 90 was found in 65[26%] boys and 89[35.6%] girls and all obese [33] children had waist percentile >/= 90. Over all 21[4.2%] and 28[5.6%] children had raised systolic and diastolic blood pressure [>/= 95[th] percentile] respectively. With increasing status of body mass index, there was an increase in both systolic and diastolic blood pressure. Over weight and obese children had significantly [p<0.001] higher blood pressure values than children with healthy weight. In obese category, 3[9%] children were hypertensive [systolic and diastolic blood pressure >/= 95[th] percentile], 2[6.%, systolic] and 4[12.% diastolic] were pre-hypertensive [>=90<95] while over weight was marked by hypertension in 3[7.3%] and pre-hypertension in 5[12.2%]. Present findings are in accordance with the definition that 5% of children in any given population would be classified as having high blood pressure and an increase in body mass index and waist circumference was found associated with raised blood pressure. The study recommends a need for measuring blood pressure in children during health maintenance visits, to identify children at greatest risk of obesity in adolescent and suggest interventions before chronic overweight is established. Education department should introduce healthy life style behaviour in school curricula to improve the health of our younger generation